The Silent Moon
by MangaFreak3
Summary: The Moon reflects light from the Sun. Without the presence of the Sun, there is no Moon. But without the presence of the Sky, there can be neither. This is the story of how the Moon came to be through the existence of the Sun and the Sky. This is the story of Vongola's Hidden Guardian, the Silent Moon. MaleOC
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I Own Nothing Except Akihiko Mizumoto, my OC.**

* * *

The rain pelted gently against the blue umbrella of a boy. The gray clouds up above made the town of Namimori seemed eerily gloomy. As he walked pass an alleyway, he heard a sharp scream.

"Onii-san!" A girlish voice pierced through the gentle rhythm of rain drops.

The boy stopped and peered into the alleyway. There it was a group of high school student beating up someone who looked as if he's from primary school. Behind them was another student who's currently holding a girl as hostage. A look of recognition flashed across the boy face. It seemed like he knew that person. Acting on instinct, he rushed forward and smacked his umbrella against one of the students. Said student cursed in pain as he stumbled back. The other students, seemingly noticed the new arrival, sneered.

"Hey look! It's another brat," They smirked. "Let's teach him a lesson too,"

The boy had on a look of indifferent and pointed the umbrella at them. He swung the umbrella like a weapon but it was sidestepped and countered with a fist. Swatting away the incoming fist, he delivered a jab toward the abdomen. It struck. But then the second fist came and he couldn't react in time. It smacked across his face. His grip on the umbrella loosen as it flown out of his hand and clattered uselessly onto the ground. Trying to regain his balance, the boy stumbled slightly. The students seeing their chance quickly rushed forward and delivered punches after punches. Unfortunately, what can a mere primary school student do against a group of high school students? Not much. He, too, took the beating.

After a while, with the only sound being the sobbing of the girl and the occasional grunts of pain, the beating finally stopped. The girl was finally let go and she quickly stumbled over to the two boys, crying. "Onii-san! Mizumoto-san!" She sobbed. One of them has blood flowing down his right temple while the other had a lash gash across his left arm.

The high school students laughed, "Haha! That ought to teach you brats a lesson!". They walked off with their hands in their pockets, acting smug and arrogant.

The person dubbed "onii-san" looked at the girl and broke into hot tear of anger, angry at himself for dragging his sister into this mess. "Sorry, Kyoko. I'm so sorry."

He looked over to Mizumoto and said, "You too, sorry for dragging you into this mess, Mizumoto. Thank you."

Mizumoto nodded and grunted softly. "Mn." As if saying, don't worry about it.

It was still raining, and the umbrella lied on the ground, forgotten. Having only used twice to block the students, its condition is not too bad to be not of used. Mizumoto stood up slowly, picked up the umbrella, opened it and offered it to the sibling. With his other hand he extended it toward the boy. "Home." He merely stated and offered a warm smile. He reached up and grabbed onto the offered hand.

The trio walked in silent, both boys limped slightly due to their injuries. Kyoko supported her brother while Mizumoto held the umbrella. Eventually, they reached the sibling home. The name plate read "Sasagawa".

"Take care," Mizumoto grunted and continued down the road. After all, he only lived a couple of block down. By the time he reached home, his parents were shocked to see the injuries their son has. His mom immediately rushed over to him.

"O Aki! Come sit down. Let me see your injury." She said. While the mother was fussing over Akihiko, the father was sitting there, patiently waiting for something.

Eventually Akihiko muttered, "I was too slow."

"W-what?" His mom asked in bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"

But his father understood. He understood that Akihiko is experiencing the feeling of being useless. He understood Akihiko lacked the training to be agile. He lacked the precision to strike. It seem like the son noticed that as well. Akihiko met his father gaze and simply stated.

"Father, I want to learn."

The father merely smiled and nodded.

Mizumoto Akihiko, son of an old family, whose business involved fan crafting and traditional Japanese dancing. Ever since he was young, he was taught to be well mannered and not to speak when not necessary. Well, as his mother, Reiko, would say, "he takes after his father. That boy, you never know what he's thinking most of the time."

The next few days passed by in a blur until one day, a loud "Mizumoto! Good morning to the extreme!" woke Akihiko up from his rest. He looked down from the window and saw that it was his classmate and also the boy at the alleyway.

"Ara, who are you, young man?" Akihiko's mother asked as she greeted the boy from the garden.

"My name is Sasagawa Ryohei to the extreme! Extremely nice to meet you, Mizumoto-san!" He shouted with great enthusiasm.

Reiko chuckled lightly, "Can I assume that you are the cause of my son injuries?"

"E-Extremely sorry Mizumoto-san!"

"A bit of injuries won't kill him," the father voice sounded through the room that could be seen from the garden.

Then Akihiko stepped down to the garden. Earlier, when he had heard Ryohei's voice, he had immediately gotten up and gotten ready. After all, it would be considered rude to make a guest wait.

"Sasagawa-san. Good morning," Akihiko said. "I hope your injuries are healing nicely."

"They are extremely healing, Mizumoto!" he shouted.

Akihiko nodded then said toward his parents, "Ittekkimasu."

"Itterashai," They responded warmly.

He nodded to Ryohei and was met with a befuddled look. Seeing the confused expression, Akihiko clarified, "you have something to talk to me about." It was more of a statement than a question. He stared patiently into Ryohei eyes. Eventually, Ryohei nodded and an uncharacteristic look of solemnity passed his face.

The two walked in silent until they reach the park. At the side of the park were several benches, which they decided to have a seat on one of the farthest. The atmosphere was heavy and depress. They sat in silent for awhile until Ryohei started speaking.

"Mizumoto, I feel hopeless and useless. When my sister was hurt, I was angry at myself because I couldn't protect her. I was too weak! If only I were stronger! If only she weren't involved because of me! If only…" He trailed off, as tear started to roll down his eyes. "…I had listened to her to not fight anymore."

Akihiko merely listen, not saying a word. There wasn't anything to say. The speaker had not finished speaking.

"I was too hot-headed! I was too careless! I never thought that my action would cause her to get involved! I, I…" By this time, Ryohei was shaking with uncontrollable anger.

Akihiko put a hand on Ryohei's shoulder to get his attention. When Ryohei looked up, he was met with a sad gaze from Akihiko. "Me too."

He said, "get stronger," and smiled lightly. No more word was exchanged after that. Only a sense of peace remained. The heavy atmosphere from earlier had been completely dispersed. This would mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

Several years have passed since then. They are now second year students of Namimori Middle School. As Akihiko was walking down the stairs, a sound of heavy footsteps reached his ears. "Akihiko! Join the boxing club!" Akihiko merely turned around and gave Ryohei a glance that said, "Refused" before continuing down the stairs to the Traditional Dance Club.

"But Akihiko!" He whined. It seemed like Akihiko had made a mistake of introducing Ryohei to the game _Peru-son-na: S.E.E.S._ In which there is a character who is a very proficient boxer and shared the same name as Akihiko. After that, Ryohei can't seem to grasp the fact that Akihiko has black whereas the game's Akihiko has white hair. Therefore they are too completely different person. Ryohei has once suggested Akihiko to bleach his hair so that they both have white hair. To which Akihiko responded with a glare so harsh that Ryohei dropped the subject altogether.

Ryohei quickly caught up to Akihiko, who's now at the bottom of the stairs. "Aki-"He started.

"Shh."

"But-"

"Shh."

"Come on, Aki-"

"Shh. Silent is golden."

That went on for quite a while until he finally gave up. But what came next were a surprise to both Akihiko and Ryohei. They overheard a pair of First years talking to each other regarding matter concerning Ryohei's sister.

"Have you heard?" The short one said.

"Yeah, seem like Mochida challenged Dame-Tsuna to a duel with Kyoko-chan as the Prize" the other one answered.

Ryohei stiffened slightly beside Akihiko. "Scum" Akihiko muttered, referring to the fact that Mochida is treating Kyoko as an object.

"Oi, let's go watch the match!"

Akihiko merely nodded and followed his friend to the gym. By the time they got there, a crowd has already formed a circle, in which Tsuna and Mochida stood facing each other, each holding a Shinai. As the match proceeded, clearly Tsuna could have gotten a point had the referee raised the flag.

"What a disgrace," Akihiko muttered as he looked indifferently at Mochida.

"Oi! That cheating to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted next to Akihiko. Unfortunately, no one seemed to notice the cheating. Or if they did, they didn't mention anything. Kyoko was off to the side, looking upset that Mochida referred to her as "the Prize" and that he's cheating. But her best friend, Kurokawa Hana held her and gently calmed her down.

Then magically, Tsuna's clothes burst into flame, leaving him only in his boxer. He exclaimed, "Rawr! Defeat Mochida with my Dying Will!" Tsuna broke Mochida's Shinai and head butted him. But the referee did not call the point. With inhuman speed, Tsuna sprang forward and grab a handful of Mochida's hair. "If you won't raise the flag for one point then I'll take one hundred points! Ya!" By the end of his tirade, it is good to say that Mochida is now bald. With such blatant win, the referee had no choice to but to admit Tsuna's victory. Akihiko let out a small chuckle and Ryohei too looked quite relieved that Mochida did not win.

"Tche, Dame-Tsuna, you only won this one by luck! I still have the right to Kyoko!" Mochida sneered.

"N-No, you are wrong!" Tsuna said.

"What? You saying you have the right? Don't make such a joke!"

"No, I'm saying you are wrong! She's a person! She can make her own decision! She's not a Prize!" Tsuna shouted.

Beside Ryohei, Akihiko nodded in agreement. Secretly, his respect for Tsuna raised of a few notches. Akihiko sneaked a glance at Ryohei and noticed he has on a fairly large grin. "Good first impression?" Akihiko asked.

"I like him!" Ryohei replied with an excited grin. Akihiko nodded and walked off. Ryohei did not follow because he knew; his friend is going to the Traditional Dance Club. As he left, he caught a gist of the conversation between Kyoko and Tsuna.

"I'm sorry I ran away this morning Tsuna. It's just that I thought you were serious. But now that I've thought about it, it must have been a joke right?" Kyoko said brightly.

Akihiko merely shook his head and smiled lightly. When he left the gym, he saw a figure standing outside smoking and muttering to no one in particular. It's not his business to pry, Akihiko walked pass him.

* * *

"Mizumoto-buchou, you are late!" One of the club member shouted as Akihiko walked into the club room.

One of the more respectful kouhai asked, "Buchou, what dance would you be showing us today?"

"Noh Mai," Akihiko said and picked up a fan, "the prop we shall be using will be Fan. Noh Mai involved elegant movement and beautiful steps. It is usually done with flute and small drum accompaniment. Watch."

Akihiko then performed a series of moves. Starting off slow then increase in speed. With occasionally lifting of leg and crouching, Akihiko execute the moves with great precision and smooth wrist movement, allowing the fan to move like a butterfly.

The club watch, entranced by his skill. It suddenly seemed to get a lot more crowded as passerby stayed at the doorway to watch. Eventually the familiar sound of a certain Head of the Discipline Committee sounded throughout the room. "Herbivores, you are crowding. I'll bite you to death." This proclamation was followed with several screams of terror as every student in the hallway scurried away from the violent Hibari Kyoya. Eventually Hibari spotted Akihiko.

"For disturbing the peace, I'll bite you to death, herbivore."

Akihiko quirked an eyebrow, as if asking, "Why are you accusing me?" Before he could say anything, a flying tonfa struck near where his head had been. With a sharp nod, Akihiko has decided that such ferocious person must be avoided at all cost. He then did the only thing he deemed smart at the moment. He ran. Using his training as a dancer, he quickly acrobat his way through the hallway, avoiding several incoming students. These unlucky students, of course, were quickly struck down by Hibari's tonfas, so as to clear the way to his prey.

"Rest in peace" Akihiko muttered as he ran. Then suddenly he saw Ryohei. Grabbing his arm he only said one word, "Run!"

Still confused why his friend would say that, Ryohei turned around and noticed Hibari. "Ah, Hibari! Let's fight to the extreme!"

Akihiko threw his friend an incredulous glance; ignoring his protest, Akihiko dragged Ryohei with him. "Oi, Akihiko! What are you doing? I want to fight to the extreme!"

Akihiko threw him another glance, which translated to, "Are you out of your mind?"

"No I'm not; I just don't see the reason to run! It would be a good test for my ability! Fight me to the extreme!" He shouted and broke free from Akihiko's grip. "Hibari! Fight me!"

His passionate declaration is met with "Tche, Noisy Animal deserved to be bitten." What happened next was a blur of movement. A jab there, an uppercut here, a tonfa there, and a kick here, it all ended with Ryohei receiving the hits and not landing them. Akihiko had on this look that said, "Told you."When Hibari finally finished with Ryohei, he turned toward Akihiko. A look of realization dawned on his face. It is like, "What the heck am I still doing here. Got to run," and run he did.

Smack! The incoming tonfa came right at his neck. Duck. The tonfa missed, but it doesn't matter as a kick to the stomach send Akihiko flying away. This is where all those dance lessons came in handy. He did an acrobatic move and would had landed perfectly had it not for the pain.. Akihiko wasn't given a chance to breath as another tonfa quickly came toward his head. He quickly raised his hand to block. That proved to be a bad idea as pain shot through his arm. Masking the pain with his stoic face, Akihiko swung his right hand at Hibari. With the fan still in his grip, the movement caused the fan to open up and acted like a knife. Had it been a steel fan it would have successfully drawn first blood. This is the first kata of Tessenjutsu, the art of steel fan. Unfortunately, it is a paper fan prop use for dancing, thus what it served was to irritate Hibari further. Hibari pick up his speed, seemingly pissed off. His strikes became faster and stronger. In less than fifteen seconds, Akihiko found himself flat on his back and stared at the ceiling. He swore he could see stars flying around. His arms and legs are bruised all over from blocking blows from Hibari. His lower lip bled slightly from the blow to his cheek, which caused his teeth to cut into his lips. Panting lightly, Akihiko muttered, "Jerk."

Having heard that last comment, Hibari turned around and glared at Akihiko. Their gaze met and Akihiko grinned lightly. As if saying, "Someday I want a rematch."

Hibari snorted and walked off. He wondered which unfortunate fool he shall bite next. Too tired to move, Akihiko stayed there on the floor until the familiar lock of brown hair enter his sight. It was Tsuna.

"Ne, are you alright?" He asked.

"Ah" Akihiko grunted.

"Let me help you up," He offered and moved Akihiko up. Though he struggled somewhat due to Akihiko having a thicker build than Tsuna, he managed to make Akihiko stood up.

"Thanks," Akihiko muttered.

"No problem!" Then he flashed Akihiko this brilliant smile. Akihiko never noticed the figure of an infant stood, watching from the windowsill. From the moment he engaged with Hibari to the moment Tsuna met him. He saw everything. As Akihiko left the school, he couldn't help but have this really bad feeling that someone was observing him.

* * *

Later that night, Akihiko decided to take a walk in the cool evening. As he was walking up the stairs on some slope, he thought he saw Tsuna running away from what looked like missiles. "Nah it couldn't be." Akihiko muttered. When he turned the corner down the next street he collided with Tsuna. "Such cliché thing that you would only see in Manga." Akihiko thought. It looked as if someone had set it up.

Due to the speed that Tsuna was running at, it generated enough force to knock Akihiko onto his back. With a loud "Oof" the air was knocked out of Akihiko lungs as Tsuna landed on top of him. Still dazed from the impact, all Akihiko heard next was a loud "Hieee!" and the weight on top of him was lifted.

"Hieee, I'm so sorry, Mizumoto-senpai!" Tsuna shouted. Then He continue to rant on and on about how he should paid more attention while at the same time blushing furiously with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry-"He never get to finish when a finger pressed firmly against his lips.

"Shh, silent is golden," Akihiko said gently, "and it's alright." He started to walk away. When he has finally left the view of Tsuna, Tsuna turned to a random bush and wailed, "Reborn! Why did you push me around the corner?"

From the bush, an infant with a fedora hat and curly sideburn stepped out. "Dame-Tsuna, don't be silly. Don't blame other when you tripped on air."

"But Reborn-"Tsuna whined. A gunshot effectively shut him up.

"Now back to your training, Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn smirked sadistically. "And don't slack off!" Cued more gun shots.

As Tsuna disappeared down the road, Reborn tilted his hat slightly, hiding his scheming eyes away from the world.

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Morning greeted Akihiko with one throbbing headache. It must be because of that smack he got from Hibari the other day. He felt sore all over his body. If he weren't disciplined as a child, he would have totally slept in and ditched school. Atlas it cannot be. Dragging himself out of his futon, he trudged his feet across the room. He looked over to his calendar to see if there was any school event today. Indeed, seemed like the volleyball tournament start today. "That, surely, would be a sight to see," Akihiko thought and got ready for school.

School rolled around with interest news. Most of the substitutes and the regular players of class 1A are absent due to an interesting case of food poisoning. Class passed by boringly. Since most of the students are excited about the tournament, classes' discussions did not go as planned. Ryohei hid behind his textbook, sleeping. Akihiko glanced at his hand. Some skins were peeled off due to heavy punching. Akihiko shook his head lightly, "Ryohei, you forgot to rest again, didn't you?" he thought. A sudden streak of black flew across the room and hit soundly against Ryohei's head.

"Sasagawa, what is the answer to this equation!" Yamada-sensei barked.

"Extreme!" still waking up from his nap, Ryohei shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Incorrect! The answer is -4. Sasagawa, if you sleep in my class one more time, detention!" He screeched. The class laughter roared throughout the room.

"Sorry to the extreme, Yamada-sensei!"

Lunch rolled around but Ryohei is nowhere to be found. Sighing, Akihiko made his way to the roof. Ryohei is most likely trying to befriend Hibari, again. Akihiko could feel a headache coming up as he walked up the stairs. It seemed that Ryohei had this strange thought that Hibari is lonely and requires company. Sometime Akihiko wondered if Ryohei is secretly a masochist. He shuddered involuntarily. Now that would be a scary thought. As he opened the door to the roof, he heard the familiar sound of tonfa hitting flesh. "There we go again," Akihiko murmured.

As expected, Hibari was pissed off and decided to "bite" Ryohei to death. It has been like that since last year. Akihiko chose a spot in the shade and sat down to enjoy his lunch. It's no use trying to break up the fight anyway. There can only be two outcomes if he did break up the fight. One, he became the new target and got beaten. Or two, both Ryohei and he received a beating. Either way, it would end with him getting more injuries than he would if he chose to run when Hibari noticed him. On second thought, he could have avoided the fight by not staying here anyway. Nah where would the fun be without some excitement in life? He observed the fight boringly. He eventually dozed off until a flying tonfa smacked onto the wall a few centimeters away from his head.

That sounded like a signal to run. Acting swiftly, Akihiko dragged the unconscious Ryohei down stairs while running away from Hibari. This could be considered as a normal occurrence for them. Once in a while, Ryohei would irritate Hibari and Akihiko would "so" happen to be there. Then Hibari would somehow decided to bite Akihiko to death even thought he did nothing to deserve this fate. And Akihiko would drag the body of Ryohei, who had been bitten, to "safety". Though Ryohei usually get more bruises from the stairs than from Hibari's tonfas. Of course, it's not like Akihiko escaped without a single scratch. That would be a miracle if he did. No, he usually got a mild concussion every now and then, sometime broken bones from falling down stairs. It served as a mean of training to avoid dangerous flying objects, a.k.a. tonfas. It's like a twisted way to bond. Sometime Akihiko wondered if Hibari secretly enjoyed beating up Ryohei and him. On second thought, let's not go there.

Back to the trio, the bell rang, signaling the end of Lunch. One would think that it is a safety bell, but who would stop Hibari when he chose to skip class to bite down some annoying herbivores? Even if they would, it's not like they could do anything to the Hibari. And thus the chase continued, until Ryohei decided to wake up and somehow tripped Akihiko in the process of stretching. The tonfa collided with Akihiko's head as he stumbled to regain balance. Smack! Akihiko fell in an ungraceful heap crashing onto Ryohei. And they are off to dream land one more time. Satisfied with the outcome, Hibari left them to spend some time in solitude.

* * *

By the time they regained consciousness, school was long over. They quickly rushed over to the gym to catch the end of the tournament, the final match between class 1A and 1D. The people playing for team 1A were Yamamoto Takeshi, the new student, Sawada Tsunayoshi and a bunch of other students that Akihiko can't seem to remember their names.

Tsuna make a leap for the ball to spike, but for strange reasons, his jump was too high. Thus he ended up blocking the ball with his "Man-part", as Ryohei would put it. "Sawada how extreme!" He shouted.

Up above the balcony, Reborn observed the match with a smirk. "Yamamoto Takeshi, your athleticism would be good for the family."

The match ended with class 1A being the winner. The new student, Gokudera Hayato, approached Tsuna after the match ended. He seemed to be quite upset about something. Akihiko couldn't tell what due to the distant.

Ryohei and Akihiko decided to go to the infirmary to get their wounds treated. But then they heard a sound of mild explosion. Akihiko glanced around sharply. But Ryohei merely brushed it off and said, "It must be an extreme huge Sale from the market!" Akihiko quirked an eyebrow and chose not to say anything.

"I have practice today to the extreme!" Ryohei suddenly stated.

Akihiko nodded and walked away. He didn't have any meeting today so he was free to go home. On the way to the gate, he went pass the baseball field. It seemed like baseball have practice today also, despite the volleyball tournament.

Turning around the corner, the baseball field left his view completely. Then suddenly, he swore he heard someone shout "Defuse the dynamites with my Dying Will!" He looked around for the source but couldn't see anyone. Thinking he must be out of his mind he shook his head vigorously. "It must be because of Hibari's hit to the head" He muttered as he quickly walked home, disturbed by the fact that he heard weird noises while at school. Maybe it's one the "7 mysteries of Namimori", maybe not, either way, with no further observations he came to the conclusion that what he heard must be the sound of spirit wailing. There it goes again, the ear splitting wail of something that sounded like "Hieeee!" He hurried home, ignoring those that greeted him along the way.

* * *

That night, sleep did not come as smoothly as he thought it would despite the tiring day. He thought he heard random "Hieeee" down the streets somewhere. Believing those were the sound of vengeful spirits, he dragged the blanket over his head. Little did he know that they were actually the sounds of a certain brunette who's being tortured by his sadistic tutor through late night trainings. When sleep finally came, he felt that someone was strangling him while in fact it was merely his blanket that somehow gotten entangled throughout the night.

Since most of the people he interacted with when he was younger were priestess, priest, exorcist and the like, it isn't that strange for him to naturally become superstitious. Occasionally one would come up to him and said something like, "Your aura doesn't look too good today," or something like "Be careful when walking in the dark." One would wonder why these people would visit him. The answer is that most of them came to either pick up or order a custom made fan and just so happened to see Akihiko who is helping out at the shop at the moment.

When he woke up from his not so good sleep, his face looked like a zombie. Actually he looked more like a panda than a zombie. It was pale and adorn with dark ashy colored circles that drooped beneath his eyes. All in all, he looked dead.

"Oh my, Aki, you look horrible today are you sure you don't need to rest?" His mother asked as she saw his ashen face.

He gave his mom this look that said, "That would be a good idea" and "crawled" back upstairs and slid under his blanket. As he was about to fall asleep, he sat upright. "No, this is unacceptable! Must go to school!" He thought, determined. He stomped downstairs, which is a very out of character action for him. He ate his breakfast quietly and walked to school. On his way there, he heard that familiar "Hieee!" again. It sounded from behind him. He stiffened and looked back. There it was a giant dust cloud and in the middle of it was Tsuna. He screamed "Hieee!" and dashed pass Akihiko.

Akihiko looked at Tsuna in bewilderment and chased after him, determined to confirm that it is indeed Tsuna's voice that he heard last night.

"Sawada-san!" He called.

Tsuna turned around and was about to answer the call when suddenly a figure with silver hair dashed by and shouted, "Juudaime!"

"Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna responded, completely mistaken the call to be from Gokudera. Gokudera suddenly noticed Akihiko and quickly pushed Tsuna behind him. He produced several sticks of dynamites and said to Tsuna, "Juudaime, I'll protect you."

Tsuna merely screamed, "Hieee!"

Yup that definitely answered Akihiko question. Akihiko could argue that the first time he heard it was his ear playing trick on him. But hearing it the second time, it is perfectly clear that it was Tsuna, who ran pass his house yesterday night. Sensing the hostility, Akihiko stepped back and put on his guard. Mentally breathing a sigh of relief that what he's heard yesterday was not the wail of vengeful spirits.

As Gokudera was about to launch the dynamites, Tsuna stopped him. "Gokudera-kun, stop!"

"But Juudaime, he is clearly a threat! Look at his shady black hair, and that blue tie and that tan jacket! He is totally someone send to kill you!" Gokudera said and glared at Akihiko.

Akihiko had on this deadpanned expression that seem to say, "Are you an idiot? This is the school uniform."

"See Juudaime, he's totally planning something with that expression of his!" Gokudera glared.

Tsuna was shocked and had on this expression of bewilderment. "But isn't that what we are also wearing?" He muttered.

"Die you mafia scum!" Gokudera roared and threw some dynamites at Akihiko.

"Hieee!" Tsuna wailed.

"This would be a good test," An infant suddenly spoke up from the bush.

Akihiko thought, "If I can swat them away before they exploded I would be fine" and swiped out a fan. Using it like a paddle, he swatted the dynamites off to the side.

"What! I won't let you harm Juudaime, you bastard!" Gokudera roared in rage and shouted, "Double Bombs!"

More dynamites headed toward Akihiko. During the whole exchange of fan waving and bomb throwing, Akihiko moved as if he was dancing, ignoring those dynamites that he knew would miss and paying attention to those that would harm him.

Finally, as Gokudera was about to go in for the kill, Tsuna shouted, "Gokudera-kun, stop it!" and looked over to Reborn for help. But Reborn merely sat there, sipping quietly on his espresso.

Stopping mid throw, Gokudera turned around and spluttered, "B-but Juudaime!" He seemed to forget that there are still some ignited dynamites on his hand. Acting swiftly, Akihiko rushed forward and smack the closed fan against Gokudera wrist causing him to drop the dynamites. But it did not end there as Akihiko quickly swat the falling dynamites away from them. They exploded unceremoniously a few meter in front of the students.

"You shouldn't play with fire," Akihiko reprimanded.

Gokudera growled, "It's none of your business!" and would have proceed to punch Akihiko had it not for Tsuna, who now held tightly onto Gokudera's arm. Akihiko shook his head and murmured, "Kids these days, so rude to their senpai."

"Gokudera-kun, why didn't you listen to me when I told you to stop?" Tsuna muttered.

"B-but,"

"Mizumoto-senpai, I'm sorry for causing you trouble" Tsuna bowed lightly.

Reborn hid a smirk, "O, Tsuna seemed much more composed today." He took note of Tsuna's behavior. "Interesting."

"It's no trouble, just be careful next time," Akihiko stated. Just then, all three of them heard the sound of late bell. Both Akihiko and Tsuna paled slightly. One thought flashed through their mind, "Hibari!"

Gokudera seemingly oblivious looked questionably at Tsuna's expression. "Juudaime, are you ill?" He asked. And Akihiko murmured, "He really will be if we don't hurry." But Gokudera heard it just fine and glared at Akihiko. What Akihiko failed to mention is that, if they don't hurry, they would all be ill in a matter of less than five minutes.

Gokudera was about to say something when Tsuna suddenly wailed and dashed to school. He was quickly followed by Akihiko, who surely doesn't want to be bitten to death.

"Juudaime, wait for me!" He yelled after Tsuna and ran after them leaving Reborn behind.

Earlier, during the battle, Reborn noticed that for some reason, Gokudera's performance is not as up to par like usual. For example, he would take a lot longer to pull out his dynamites or his movement is not as smooth. Whereas Tsuna suddenly became a lot more composed and didn't stutter when apologizing. Reborn chose to put this matter off for now. He decided to investigate some more before making any conclusion. After all, in his line of work any hasty action usually results in death.

* * *

Back to the trio, as the near the entrance, they noticed a lone figure standing in the middle of the gate. This is none other than the Hibari Kyoya. He gave them a glare and said, "For being tardy, I'll bite you to death."

Gokudera, being the ever loyal right hand man he is, decided to stand up and defend his boss from the enemy.

"Juudaime let me handle this," he said and took out some dynamites. Using this as a distraction, Akihiko grabbed Tsuna and made a quick dash to safety. Unfortunately, nothing escapes the Hibari. With two swift strikes, one to the head and another to the gut, Gokudera was struck down. He turned to Akihiko and Tsuna.

"For trying to escape, such action deserved to be bitten!" With one quick movement, Hibari approached the two. Akihiko quickly ushered Tsuna to get to class while he hold him off, hopefully. With a flourishing movement, Akihiko brought up a fan to block the tonfa. He had brought his trusty steel fan to school today thinking he would "exorcise" the vengeful spirit, whose wail could cause fear even to a grown man. That proved to be a good choice in this situation. Although there isn't any spirit to exorcise there surely is a carnivore trying to kill innocent herbivores.

Block! Akihiko deflected the incoming tonfa and delivered a cross slash, trying to scrape Hibari's cheek. Hibari lean backward a little bit to dodge and brought his other hand tonfa down to strike Akihiko's head. With a leap Akihiko bought himself some distant as Hibari missed. Adapting quickly, Hibari rushed forward, intending to knock Akihiko out cold. Anticipating this Akihiko brought his leg up and did a downward kick. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he moved forward using the momentum and did a chop which Hibari blocked flawlessly. Smirking slightly, Hibari quickly pushed forward to put Akihiko off balance and delivered his own kick. It connected and sent Akihiko skidding back a couple of feet. Following up with a flick of his wrist, he spun the tonfa so as the long part is now protruding outward instead of resting near the forearm. With the momentum gained from spinning, the tonfa collided soundly with Akihiko head. Akihiko staggered back slightly. Recovering in time for the second strike, he jumped over the strike intended for his gut and jump over Hibari's head, spinning while doing so. Akihiko landed behind Hibari and swung around. Fan met tonfa in a loud smack. Recovering faster, Hibari brought his other hand down and disarmed Akihiko's fan.

Hibari gave him the look that said, "You lost."

Akihiko replied with another look that said, "Darn, I was close."

To which Hibari replied with, "not even close," and struck Akihiko down. He went over to the fallen fan and picked it up then said to Akihiko, "For bringing unregistered weapon to school, I will keep this."

Akihiko smiled lightly but didn't say anything. The fan in Japan signifies friendship, loyalty, and respect. When someone exchanges old fans with another, it could mean that they are wishing the other good wishes, respect the other, and view the other as friendship. For Hibari to take Akihiko's fan after battle using the excuse "unregistered fan" to keep it, surely Hibari would know what fan symbolizes. After all it would be shocking if such disciplined young man doesn't know the meaning of the fan. Besides, rumors had it that Hibari came from a prominent family. If that was true, then Hibari would be taught the basic of Japanese culture. Akihiko felt flattered that Hibari viewed him as an acquaintance of some sort. Because all Namimori knows that Hibari has no friends, at least not yet.

Akihiko stay there for awhile, exhausted from the spar. Besides, if he were to get up and go to class, he would still be late anyway. But then that mean he would have to miss lessons. That cannot be. Sighing, he grudgingly stood up, took awhile to clear his headache then finally walked to his classroom.

As he slid open the door, Yamada-sensei shouted, "Mizumoto, you are late!" But one look at Akihiko's tattered state and he knew what had happened. "Mizumoto, I never expected you to be a gangster." Maybe not. He seemed to have a wrong idea. Sighing, Akihiko answered, "Hibari."

Then it dawned to the class. They started to whisper something like, "Oh, even such good student were bitten by Hibari, what should I do?"

Yamada-sensei looked taken back and said, "Go have a seat."

Nodding slightly, he walked over to his seat and met Ryohei's gaze. He nodded answering to the unasked question, "Are you alright?"

* * *

Lunch came quickly, but Akihiko was fast asleep behind his textbook. Having gotten little to no sleep last night, adding to that the little spar he had with Hibari, he's completely spent his reserved. So even though the bell has rung, he made no effort to sit up, until Ryohei came and gently prodded him. Making the shooing motion, he mumbled slightly, "go away."

"You are going to miss lunch to the extreme!" He shouted.

Sighing, it forced himself to wake up and allowed Ryohei to drag him away to the cafeteria and prod him against a wall of some sort, could be a chair. But it doesn't matter as long as he got to sleep. After awhile, he felt someone moved him, doesn't matter, "it's comfy," thought Akihiko. When he woke up, he found himself in the boxing club room and it was already the end of school. Well, isn't this great, he missed both day of school because he either knocked out or slept through the whole thing. Ryohei was nowhere to be found.

Akihiko got up and walked outside. The sunlight splashed against his face and he felt regenerated. He hummed in satisfaction. Walking past the baseball field, he saw two students who were cleaning up the vast field. Oddly happy, he walked over to them and decided to give whoever over there a helping hand.

It turned out to be Yamamoto and Tsuna. Strange, where did Gokudera disappear to? Judging from this morning, Gokudera rarely leave Tsuna's side. If one see Tsuna, Gokudera must be somewhere around the corner.

Walking over to Tsuna and Yamamoto, Akihiko asked, "Help?" and grabbed hold of one of those broomsticks.

"Ahahaha, Mizumoto-senpai, thanks!" Yamamoto laughed.

"T-thank you," Tsuna muttered.

Akihiko smiled and helped them clean up. Halfway through, Yamamoto suddenly said, "Ma, Tsuna, I really admire you. You have been really amazing lately, ranging from Kendo to volleyball. Compare to you, I only play baseball."

Akihiko didn't say anything and observe the exchange of conversation silently. "N-no, I wasn't that good" Tsuna mumbled. "Compare to you, you are always good with baseball," Tsuna offered.

"Nah, I haven't been doing well lately. What should I do?" he asked Tsuna.

"W-well, I guessed more effort," Tsuna said.

"Yeah, maybe you are right. Alright, I'm going to practice like crazy!" He laughed and went back to cleaning up the field. Soon they were finished and as they all went off to do their business, Akihiko caught up to Yamamoto and said. "Yamamoto, we are all born with something special. So don't compare yourself to other."

Akihiko was not sure if Yamamoto understood or not, but he laughed and responded, "Thank you, senpai!" and when off to practice.

Sighing, Akihiko turned around the corner and saw Tsuna with the infant. Akihiko asked, "Alone?"

Tsuna stuttered, "Oh no, I'm with my tutor, Reborn, "gesturing toward the infant. Quirking an eyebrow, Akihiko nodded and said, "I'll walk you home,"

"Oh no, it's alright." He said shook his head. But was interrupted by Reborn, "That would be a great idea,"

They walked home in silent and Tsuna felt like he should say something. Actually it was more of Reborn pulling Tsuna's hair and telling him to say something. When asked why he merely answered, "You need to have good relationship with potential family member". Strangely Akihiko did not seem to hear any of the above conversation.

"Gokudera told me he needs to go resupply his dynamites." Tsuna started.

Akihiko merely nodded politely and offered a small, "I see."

"S-sorry this morning about Hibari," He muttered but Akihiko smiled lightly and gave Tsuna a pat on the shoulder, "it's good training,"

They settled in an awkward silent. Akihiko then produced a fan out of nowhere. This is his spare fan that Akihiko personally crafted. It's not made for combat and more for dances instead. He gently pat Tsuna and when he turned around, gave Tsuna that fan.

"Mizumoto-senpai?" Tsuna asked.

"Take it."

Tsuna, seemingly recognized the significant of this exchange, smiled brightly and accepted the fan. "Thank you, Mizumoto-senpai,"

Akihiko smiled and hummed. The walk after that was quite. But neither party felt the urge to speak. Strangely enough, Reborn didn't say anything either, choosing to observe before asking Akihiko to join Tsuna family. He thought that Akihiko felt strange somehow and wanted to confirm whether or not he's a threat.

They soon reached Tsuna home and Nana wanted Akihiko to stay for dinner. But Akihiko humbly declined and said he must get home for rest due to the tiring day. Pouting, Nana insisted on inviting Akihiko someday, to which Akihiko responded with, "If I'm not imposing, I would be glad to join your family for dinner someday."

Tsuna and his mom both exchange words of parting with Akihiko. That night Akihiko slept soundly due to the fact that there shall be no more haunting evil spirit to disturb him. After all, there can't be an evil spirit if the real cause for the noise is actually alive. That night, he dreamt of moon and bunnies. How strange.

* * *

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! Except my OC, Mizumoto Akihiko. (forgot to put the disclaimer in chapter 2)  
**

**AN: Thank you to those who reviewed. It is really encouraging that there are people who like my work! I work twice as hard after reading them!  
**

Moring came and Akihiko felt oddly refresh. The sun shone brightly and as the twittering swallows flown by, the early spring breeze greeted Akihiko, carrying a sense of freshly bloomed blossoms. All in all, it was a very calming morning. Though Akihiko cannot help but have a foreboding feeling, as if this was merely the calm before the storm.

Shrugging off the bad feeling, Akihiko put on his school uniform and went down stairs for breakfast. As usual, he would eat his breakfast then take the bento that he usually prepared the night before. Then he would go to school. He didn't encounter anything strange in particular and safely arrived to campus ground.

Since he was early, there was no reason for Hibari to bite him. And for some odd reason, the school seemed devoid of students, or at least none that he could see. But then he heard a scream from the roof. Immediately looking up, he noticed a group of students that stationed themselves ridiculously near the fence and one was even at the other unprotected side of the roof. "Kids these days," He muttered in annoyance and took a closer look. It turned out to be none of other than Yamamoto Takeshi. Sighing in annoyance, he marched toward the school building. Instead of going to the roof, he chose his destination to be the Disciplinary Committee Office, which is estimated to be located somewhere on the third floor.

Knocking gently on the door, he waited patiently as someone from the other side answered. "Coming" They called. The door gently opened and Kusakabe Testuya, the second-in-command of the Disciplinary Committee, greeted Akihiko. "Ah Mizumoto-san, good morning, what brings you here?" He asked.

Akihiko nodded lightly in respond to Kusakabe's greeting. Then he said, "Hibari?"

"O, you are looking for Hibari-san. W-well I don't think you should, cause…" He trailed off as he gestured to the sleeping Hibari, well, napping.

Akihiko nodded but nevertheless walked into the room and silently approached the sleeping Hibari. He gestured to Kusakabe that it would be fine, despite Kusakabe silent protest. As he got closer, Hibari suddenly opened his eyes and glared at Akihiko and said, "Herbivore."

Akihiko nodded slightly then looked up and back to Hibari, as if to say, "Are you going to do anything about that?" That referred to Yamamoto.

Hibari snorted, "Hn." This translated to, "not my business"

Akihiko quirked an eyebrow as if to say, "If he succeed, he's going to disturb the peace, you know."

Hibari glared," get out of here herbivore," and got up, fixing his tonfa. This indicated that he would be doing something. During the whole exchanged Kusakabe was looking back and forth nervously. Actually, since he couldn't hear a single word beside a few snorts now and then, it made him feel twice the amount of anxiety he usually felt. Akihiko smiled lightly and stepped out of the room, but not before receiving a smack to the head by a flying tonfa.

"Next time, if you disturbed me, I'll bite you to death, herbivore." Hibari growled.

Akihiko turned around, rubbed his head sheepishly, and nodded. Then he offered a small smile to Kusakabe and walked off. As he was walking down the hallway, he thought he saw two people, who looked suspiciously like Yamamoto and Tsuna, falling. It happened so fast and Akihiko thought his eyes were playing trick on him. After all he was sure Hibari had taken care of this.

Actually, when he turned around, Hibari stood there with this seriously pissed off face. He looked as if he was about to murder someone. On second thought maybe he is. Hibari glared at Akihiko and walked past him. "Come, I have some herbivores to bite."

Quirking an eyebrow, Akihiko, nevertheless, followed him. Who in their right mind would disobey the Hibari? Surely not Akihiko, he totally doesn't want to be bitten today. He wordlessly walked behind Hibari. Along the way, he received many weird glances from fellow students.

He heard something like, "Would you look at that, who would have thought Mizumoto-senpai is a delinquent,"

Annoyed, he gave the speaker a glance. Said speaker shuddered involuntarily. That proved to have a negative effect as the speaker quickly whispered to his friend, "Did you see the glance? That was totally delinquent style!"

Akihiko furrowed his eyebrows lightly, getting irritated. Hibari merely smack his tonfa against said speaker and said, "I hate crowding." He strode down the hallway as if nothing had happened.

Akihiko smiled lightly and muttered, "Thanks." He wasn't sure if Hibari heard it or not. Or if he did, he shows no sign of acknowledgement. Eventually they reached the open area outside of the school building. Both Yamamoto and Tsuna was there talking happily and sighing in relief, respectively. They seemed to notice Hibari and tensed.

"For attempting to stain Namimori with unnecessary bloodshed," Hibari growled and glared harshly at Yamamoto. Then he glanced over at Tsuna and continued, "And dragging other people with you, I'll bite you to death!"

"N-now, wait a minute, Hibari, it wasn't like that, let me I assured you." Yamamoto tried to placate him, a nervous smile plastered on his face. But it proved fruitless as Hibari dashed forward.

"Hieee, Yamamoto-kun!" Tsuna screamed.

Off to the side, Akihiko mentally face-palmed. Letting out a huge sigh, he murmured, "How did it come to this?"

"O-Oi, Hibari!" Yamamoto shouted. The sound of tonfa swishing and Tsuna's screaming, with occasional Yamamoto shouting slowly fade out as the trio ran off somewhere. Akihiko sighed and walked back into the building. Unbeknownst to him, Reborn perched on top of the tree and observed the whole thing.

When Akihiko entered the building, Reborn muttered, "Hibari would be a good addition to the family. As for Mizumoto..." He trailed off as he produced a phone and dialed a certain number.

After awhile, a person answered the call. "Hey, Reborn, it's rare that you would call me during work."

"Iemitsu, I want you to look up someone name Mizumoto Akihiko." Reborn said.

"Always straight to the point eh?" Iemitsu teased.

"Iemitsu, this may regard to your son's safety. I want the information as soon as possible." Reborn warned.

"Alright, alright, I'll have him look up by the end of today," Iemitsu sighed. "Expect my call then."

Without saying anything, Reborn hung up. "Mizumoto Akihiko, if you proved worthy, I'll add you to Tsuna's Family. If you proved to be a threat…" The chameleon, which was on top of Reborn hat, transformed into a gun. Reborn aimed the crosshair at Akihiko's head. "You are a goner." He finished.

From afar, Akihiko shuddered involuntarily. He felt as if someone was planning his death. Shrugging off, he opened his shoes locker and changed into his indoor shoes. The day passed by peacefully, or as peaceful as it can get, which included random screams of terrors caused by Hibari and occasional "Extreme" from Ryohei. Actually, sometime Akihiko could hear Tsuna's wails too and random explosion noises that sounded like gunshot. But he paid it no mind. It had become a regular occurrence for him.

Later that day, Reborn received a phone call.

"Oi, Reborn, I'm sending them over right now." Iemitsu spoke from the phone.

Leon, the chameleon, suddenly transformed into a machine and information was quickly faxed through. Getting the papers in hand, Reborn quickly scanned through the information. He heard Iemitsu muttered over the phone, "I think you are losing your touch, He's just a normal kid."

Reborn respond with, "Don't think you are safe just because you are in Italy."

"Aw crap," Iemitsu groaned and hung up the phone.

Looking over the folder, Mizumoto Akihiko, indeed, does look like a legit normal kid. After much contemplation, Reborn finally came to the conclusion. "Mizumoto Akihiko, I'll trust you for now." He muttered and burned the papers in a bright yellow flame. Disappearing down the secret tunnel, he had on this smirk that would promise pain to a certain student of his.

* * *

The next day came around pretty quick. It was like any other day. Akihiko got up, ate then go to school and listen to boring teacher rambling on and on about tangency and angles. It seemed like Gokudera finally came back from his little trip. Akihiko wondered if he was the reason that Gokudera ran out of dynamites. He doesn't know that it was actually a combined effort of Tsuna, Hibari and him. It's safe to say, he wasn't so happy about Yamamoto and decided to give him the nickname, "Baseball-freak."

As per usual, lunch rolled around and Ryohei magically disappeared. There are only two places he could check, the boxing room, or the roof. Akihiko stopped over at the boxing room first since Ryohei is most likely to be there. It was empty. So therefore he must be on the roof.

Arriving at the roof, he opened the door and was greeted with empty spaces. "Seem like Ryohei is not here either, how strange," he thought. Well, since he's already here, might as well enjoy the breeze.

Since it is still early spring, the sunlight is not too hot as to cause harm to the body if stayed under for too long. Looking over to the side, the supposedly broken fence was miraculously fixed. "It must be the work of the Disciplinary Committee," he concluded. As he were enjoying the breeze, the door swung open and Ryohei came rushing out with Hibari hot on his heels.

"Extreme work out!" Ryohei shouted. Akihiko had on this bewildered expression as he saw them. Ryohei stopped in the middle and turned around to look at Hibari. "Hibari, I challenge you to the extreme!"

Akihiko thought he saw a vein popped on Hibari's head. Usually when this happened, the roof is devoid of people. But today, there seemed to be three more new additions. Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto stepped onto the roof.

"Oi, Baseball-freak, what's so funny?" Gokudera growled.

"Haha, nothing," Yamamoto laughed.

Their conversation reached Akihiko ears. Sighing, if Akihiko doesn't do something soon, they'll be bitten for "crowding". "Sorry, Ryohei," Akihiko muttered tiredly and walked over to the underclassmen, ushering them back downstairs. Meanwhile, behind them, Ryohei was fighting passionately with Hibari. If Kyoko heard this she would totally be so upset at Ryohei.

"Oi, fan-freak, what are you doing!" Gokudera barked as being push gently downs the stairs.

"What was that?" Yamamoto asked as they walked downstairs to class 1-A.

"Bonding." Akihiko answered completely ignored Gokudera's outburst and continued to push him, despite his protest.

"B-but they were hurting each other," Tsuna stuttered. A hidden door suddenly opened to reveal Reborn and his favorite espresso. Reborn said, "Dame-Tsuna, sparring is a great way of bonding,"

Akihiko nodded in agreement. He looked at Reborn questionably. Reborn spared him a glance and said, "It's my secret network," referring to his hidden trap doors and tunnels. Akihiko nodded and they soon reached room 1-A. Reborn had already left the trio by now claiming to have some personal matters to attend to.

At the doorway to class 1-A, they met Kyoko and Hana.

"Ara, Akihiko-senpai, what are you doing here?" Kyoko remarked completely ignoring the bickering between Hana and Gokudera and Yamamoto who's trying to break them apart. "What's that, Monkey?" "Shut up you hag!" "Maa, maa, calm down,"

At that moment Tsuna has a single thought ran through his head, "She called him by his first name!"

"Lunch with Sawada-san" Akihiko answered.

Muttering up his courage, Tsuna asked timidly, "Ano, how did you know each other?"

Kyoko answered brightly, "Oh, he's onii-san's best friend! He's like my second brother. Because you know, onii-san is always running around looking for fights. Akihiko-senpai, please take good care of onii-san."

Akihiko nodded and smiled lightly.

Tsuna mentally breathed a sigh of relief. "Kyoko-chan, would you like to join us for lunch?" He shyly asked.

Kyoko smiled brightly and shook her head, "Sorry, I promised Hana I would spend some time with her today during lunch. You know, girl talk." Hana and her walked over to a table near the window and stationed themselves there, chattering happily.

As Akihiko entered the room, people looked at Akihiko strangely, wondering why a second year would visit the first year classroom. Akihiko ignored them and joined Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto for lunch. They had a decent conversation about random things ranging from the weather to clubs. Well, ignoring the constant shouting about "Juudaime" and "Baseball-freak" and "Ahahaha", it was a decent conversation. Akihiko just sat there and listened tentatively to their bickering. He smiled lightly, enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.

Then suddenly, the atmosphere shifted as Tsuna thought he heard people gossiping around him. Some saying stuff like, "I'm so jealous. Why must Yamamoto-kun sit with Dame-Tsuna?" or something like, "Kya, I hate Dame-Tsuna, why must he hog Mizumoto-senpai too?" "Not only does he get both the school idols, he also hogged the new student too! Gah, I'm so jealous!" "I bet he blackmailed them somehow." "Yeah that totally true, this is Dame-Tsuna, after all."

Fidgeting in his seat, Tsuna ducked his head. Yamamoto noticed the gossips and looked just as upset, a dark look settled on his face. "That wasn't very nice."

"What was that? I dare you to say that again!" Gokudera barked. He was about to say something else when Akihiko's voice cut through the room, effectively silencing everyone. "Have you no manner? If you wish to gossip about someone, do it when you are not in their presences. Such a nuisance to society."

Several of them were speechless and a few of them had a look of indignant. One of them spoke up. "W-what is it to you? It's none of your business!"

Still fuming with silent anger, Akihiko glared at her. But it was Yamamoto who spoke next, "Friends cared for each other! That wasn't very nice when you spoke so harshly of him." He had on a very cold expression. Gokudera had already stood up and is now extremely close to her. He had on this dark menacing look and the girl cannot help but back away slowly.

After gaining some distant, the school girl looked enraged and pointed at them, "What, so you are claiming to be his friends? Don't joke, I bet he blackmailed you into doing it! You are just a loser like him!"

Kyoko decided to step in. "Sasaki-san, that wasn't very nice!"

Akihiko spoke up, "When you point at someone, which direction are your other fingers pointing at?" He gave the girl a glance while Yamamoto eyed her coldly and Gokudera advanced further.

"W-what?" she stuttered, caught off guard by the sudden question.

It was Kurokawa Hana who explained it, "It means that when you accused someone, you should look at yourself first since three of your fingers are pointing at yourself."

"S-so you are saying I'm a loser?" She yelled. "W-why you!"

"So what if you are a loser, hag, I'll destroy you!" Gokudera growled and got ready to take out his dynamites.

It would have continued to escalate into a full blown fight had not for a sudden slamming of table that caught everyone's attention. The person who did it was none other than Tsuna.

"Enough! Gokudera-kun, Yamamoto-kun, Mizumoto-senpai, let's eat our lunch in peace." He said slowly.

"What, you're scared?" The girl taunted.

"No, it's not because I'm scared, it's because I refused to acknowledge your presence! What you've said was clearly out of line. I felt there was no need to hold conversation with you any longer." Tsuna glared harshly at the girl and caused her to flinch. Akihiko swore he saw something akin to orange flame flickered through Tsuna's eyes. Everyone was quite after that. Gokudera had on this expression of pure admiration. He said, "Juudaime is so cool."

Even Yamamoto was amazed at Tsuna. He muttered, "Wow, Tsuna." Breathless.

Then suddenly someone shouted from the hallway, "Everyone! Hibari's coming, act normal!" Hibari must have heard words about the commotion.

True enough, Hibari stepped in and everyone tried to act normal. "Who was it that disturbed the peace?" He looked over the room. No one dare meet his gaze. Gokudera would, but he was being held down by Yamamoto and Tsuna. He growled and fixed his tonfa.

It was that girl who answered him, "W-wait Hibari-senpai! It was Mizumoto-senpai who started it!" She smirked in triumph, thinking she had Akihiko.

Akihiko merely quirked an eyebrow and looked at Hibari as if saying, "You are too smart to fall for that."

Hibari's glared intensify and instead of attacking Akihiko, he swung his tonfa at the girl. "For lying to me, I'll bite you to death."

During the whole "biting", Akihiko gestured to Yamamoto, Gokudera and Tsuna to continue their lunch. They nervously, except Gokudera who was still bathing in the afterglow of Tsuna's coolness, ate and kept a close eye on Hibari, in case he chose to bite them too. Other than the occasional flying tonfa that would magically hit Akihiko in the head, they received no casualty. He felt that Hibari was doing it on purpose, just to warn him not to do anything stupid that would result in getting bitten. From that day on, class 1-A received brand new tables and chairs and that female student were never seen again. Akihiko thought she was expelled for harassing someone.

Up on the roof, Reborn nodded silently. "You passed" He smirked. Earlier that day, he had purposely set it up so that Tsuna and friends would go up to the roof around the same time Hibari is biting Ryohei while Akihiko is there. He planned it so that Akihiko would have to help the trios to avoid Hibari and have lunch in class 1-A. Then he notified Hibari about the commotion discreetly just to see how Hibari would react. Another reason was that Hibari would resolve the situation without causing it to be too messy. And the rest was history.

The moment Akihiko defended Tsuna without physically hurting the girl, Reborn has deemed him passed. If he could wield word like a weapon, then it wouldn't take a long time to train him to be good in diplomacy. He smirked, satisfied with the outcome. He was also satisfied that Tsuna is showing some back bone, which translated to, he now can use much more sadistic method to train his student. His smirk widened.

As he walked off the school ground, he was seen answering to a call.

It seemed like the Poison Scorpion would be visiting him pretty soon. How interesting.

* * *

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! except Akihiko Mizumoto, my OC.  
**

**AN: This chapter took me awhile. I encountered some conflict on which direction the story should go. In the end I chose this... Hope you like it!**

* * *

The weekend finally came as Akihiko let out a noise of pure satisfaction. Lying on his bed, he stared at the ceiling, feeling exceptionally lazy today. Reflecting on the past few days, Akihiko noted that he would need to start crafting his personal fans again. Sighing, he remembered Hibari took his combat one. That would take a while to remake. Actually they both would take about the same time to finish. Estimated completion time to be about three days, give or take a day, depending on his working speed. If he is extremely focused, then it would simply take two days. Combat fan can't be craft in rush. It would be extremely dangerous if the balance is off or if the fan blade is not strong enough to support the fan itself. Any mistakes could hinder the wielder during combat.

On the other hand, performances fan, depending on which type, took forever to decorate. No it's not those cheap fans that one can get at the stand on the street. Those cheap ones usually lose shape after only a couple of swipe. Plus most of them only consisted of less than 15 ribs. Akihiko only craft those of high quality that look heavy and actually feel heavy. It is a work of art! After all, Akihiko needed to paste several layers of Washi, a type of Japanese paper, on the fan so that it's become much higher quality. Such things are needed so that it won't lose shape after a couple swipes, imagined the horror when one's fan fell apart during performances, which simply cannot be. Simply put, both fans are equally time-consuming to craft.

After much conflict, he finally settled with crafting the non-combat one first. This way, he would be able to use it during club activities. On the other hand, he would have to settle on using one of his prototypes of combat fans for self defend. Though he have a feeling those wouldn't stand a chance against Hibari. A smack of a tonfa would completely destroy them. Sighing one more time, he reluctantly got up.

He took one glance at the clock that read 5:26 A.M. This meant that Akihiko would have plenty of time to work on his fan today. Grinning, Akihiko walked happily down the stairs to his workshop that his father specifically set aside for him since he was young.

Ever since that alleyway incident, both his parents taught him how to dance, to craft fans, and basic self-defense moves with the fan. After a certain amount of time when Akihiko became proficient enough to craft his own fans without supervision, his father had left him a room for him to make into a workshop.

Opening the sliding door, he approached his work bench. He didn't know how much time have passed, but when he decided to take break after cutting the woods into acceptable shape, it was already 9 o'clock.

He decided to make himself some snacks but realized he did not have enough ingredients. Sighing, it seemed like he would have to do some shopping. It would make a good break anyway.

Walking down the street, Akihiko thought he saw a baby in a cow suit, sulking in a corner.

He approached the boy and crouched low. Smiling lightly, he asked in a soft voice, so as not to scare the boy, "Are you alright?"

The kid sniffed then suddenly jumped onto Akihiko. "Wah, Lambo-san doesn't know where Reborn lived!"

Patting the kid gently while letting him bawled all over his shirt, he thought he heard he said "Reborn."

"Are you looking for Reborn?" Akihiko asked gently.

He stopped crying and looked at Akihiko with teary eyes, "You know where he lives?"

Nodding lightly, he smiled and carried the crying baby to Tsuna's house, his earlier task forgotten. He soon arrived at Tsuna's house and rang the doorbell. After a while, Nana answered the door.

"Ara, Akihiko-kun, are you here to see Tsuna?" Nana asked enthusiastically. "He's currently studying upstairs with Reborn."

Akihiko nodded lightly and walked into the house when Nana invited him. "Come on in."

"Sorry to impose," Akihiko spoke softly.

"Don't be silly, I'm so glad Tsuna is making so many new friends lately. I'm so happy!" Nana smiled.

Looking down at Lambo, he introduced her to Nana.

"Ara, such cute kid!" she cooed softly.

"Ne, Lambo-san is looking for Reborn!" Lambo declared.

Nana laughed lightly and said, "Reborn is upstairs, you can go up there if you want." Nodding eagerly, he dashed upstairs, leaving Akihiko behind.

Sighing, Akihiko sat down after receiving a nod from Nana.

"I'll just sit here. Tsuna is studying," Akihiko stated when Nana told him that Tsuna is upstairs.

Smiling lightly, Nana made some tea for herself and offered a cup to Akihiko.

"Thank you," He said and accepted the cup silently. After the first sips, he commented, "Sawada-san, you make really good tea."

Chuckling, Nana scolded, "None of this Sawada-san nonsense. Just calls me Nana! If you like I could give you the recipe."

"Thank you," he nodded politely.

They enjoyed their tea in comfortable silent until Akihiko heard Tsuna's wail and the familiar sound of explosions shook the house. Nana smiled and answered Akihiko when he had on this look of bewilderment on his face, "Don't worry, it's just the kids are playing upstairs, nothing too dangerous with Reborn there."

For some reason, looking at Nana's bright smile, he felt reassured that nothing would go wrong. After a while Nana started to say, "That boy, Tsuna, I worry about him sometime. It's like these past few years, his father hadn't been home and he barely made any friends. It's just… as a mother I worry how he would turn out. But then I guess he would be okay. He met so many new friends lately. You have no idea how happy I was when you walked him home the other day." Nana told him, with a genuine smile on her face.

Akihiko nodded and return the smile but didn't say anything.

"Did you know, the fan that you gave him?" She chuckled. "He talked nonstop about it when you left the other day. I really hope you can hold true to your promise. After all, you would know what the fan signifies since you were the one who gave it to him." Nana looked seriously at him. "If you have no intention of keeping that promise, then I would have to ask you to leave this instant."

Seemed like Nana is very protective of her son, Akihiko swore he could see white aura emitting from Nana at the moment.

Looking up from his cup, he looked straight into Nana's eyes. "I have no intention of breaking that promise." Their gazes locked.

Nana searched for any lies as she stared into Akihiko's eyes. After awhile, she smiled warmly and said, "I'm glad. Akihiko-kun. Would you like to help me with lunch?" She offered.

Speaking of lunch, he suddenly remembered his snack and the shopping trip. Oh well, those can wait. He nodded to Nana's offer.

"Great!" Nana beamed. "Now let's go shopping!" and dragged Akihiko with her.

During the whole shopping trip, Akihiko carried all the bags despite Nana protest. She said, "Mou, I'm not entirely useless you know."

"I insist," Akihiko merely answered.

"Well, we are almost done here anyway. Akihiko-kun, you have to stay for dinner as well!" She declared passionately.

"I don't want to impose," Akihiko replied.

"Nonsense, you have to stay, because you refused my invitation the other night so you have to stay today."

"b-but"

"No, I insist!" She smiled brightly.

Akihiko felt a sense of déjà vu. Sighing, he admitted defeat. "Thank you, Nana-san."

Her smile widened and they quickly got home. But strangely, Tsuna, Lambo and Reborn were no longer home. Pouting lightly, she said, "Aw, they are not going to get to eat lunch today." She shook her head and turned to Akihiko. "Well let's get started on cooking!" She looked at him expectantly.

Her exclaim was met with a petrified face. Akihiko can't cook. Never! No! Absolutely not! He can't cook to save his life! He thought that his job was to give her the ingredients and not actually be doing the cooking! He had never cooked before due to the fact that his mom does most of the cooking and his father can't cook. But due to her being a dance instructor, she constantly has to go back to the dance studio to prepare the students for performances and competition, so most of the time he has to reheat his food, which his mother prepared for him and his father, with the microwave. "N-no, Nana-san, I assured you, you do not want me near there." He sweated nervously.

"Nonsense, if you don't learn, you'll never get it." Nana chided lightly and dragged him over to the kitchen.

During the whole process, Nana was very patient with Akihiko. "Ah, Akihiko, you do it like this," She said and took over to do a demonstration then gave it back to him. "Now you try!" She beamed.

Reluctantly at first, he slowly imitated what Nana did. As time flew by, his movement became more natural and less tense. His face was plastered with a smile of curiosity, eager to explore this uncharted land. From aside, Nana watched in silent, a knowing smile adorned her face.

When they finally finished, they sat down and got ready to dine.

"Itadakimasu" they said and as they put the first spoon into their mouth, Akihiko froze in shock. Had it not for his well mannerism, he would have spat it back out. But Nana ate on happily.

"You know, it's not bad for your first time." She commented and smiled lightly.

"I'm sorry for wasting the perfectly good ingredients," He apologized.

"Haha, you are strange, you just need more practice that's all," She encouraged. "Ask your mom for some tips, I'm sure she's a great cook if she raised such a well mannered son."

Blushing slightly from embarrassment, Akihiko muttered quietly, "She won't have enough time."

"Nonsense, there isn't one parent who won't save time for their kids. I'm sure if you ask she would," Nana said gently.

"I-I don't know." Akihiko felt like he's being spoken to like a seven years old. "I just don't want to bother her so much."

Smiling softly, Nana reached over and gave his hand a light pat, "Just try?"

"Yes," Akihiko finally said.

They both looked at the food and laughed lightly. "Well, Tsuna is a lucky boy, isn't he?" Nana joked.

"Yes, he sure is," Akihiko chuckled.

"Tell you what; I'll give you a preview of how a chef works later tonight, so you have to stay for dinner!" She winked.

Smiling lightly, "Yes of course, Nana-san," he replied.

"Now, as for this, let's recycle it into something better." She smiled and took both dishes, dumped the contents into a pot and start mixing it. She added some water, some spices and stirred it a few times.

Akihiko watched in amazement. This is truly a master chef at work. After sometime, she's finally done and filled the dishes with two serving.

"Try it, Beef Stew," she said.

Eating the first bite, Akihiko was shocked. How could the former inedible food turn into such amazing dish? He was speechless and gaped openly at Nana.

She merely gave him a secretive smile and winked.

After they are done, Akihiko insisted on helping her clean up. When Tsuna and Reborn came back from wherever they were, Tsuna was surprised by Akihiko's presence. He didn't expect him to visit.

"Mizumoto-senpai, w-what are you doing here?" Tsuna asked.

Nana chuckled. "My, Tsu-kun, you were very rude today. He had been waiting for you since this morning." She softly chided.

"S-sorry senpai," Tsuna blushed.

Akihiko merely shook his head and said, "Lambo?" asking for the kid whereabouts.

Then Tsuna suddenly have on this look of realization. It seemed like he had forgotten about that cow kid. "Ne, R-Reborn, where Lambo?" He asked.

"Dame-Tsuna, I don't associate with such low ranked group. If you ask me one more time, I'll shoot you," He threatened with a gun pointed at Tsuna's head.

"Mou, that's not very nice. Tsu-kun, you should go look for Lambo." Nana scolded.

"Eh, b-but," Tsuna complained.

"No but. Now get going Tsuna," Nana smiled and pushed her son outdoor. Akihiko bowed lightly to Nana and followed Tsuna.

"Mou, Namimori is so big, where can I find him?" Tsuna muttered.

"Split up," Akihiko offered from behind Tsuna, causing him to jump a few feet.

"Hieee, senpai, don't sneak up on me like that!" Tsuna wailed.

Quirking an eyebrow, Akihiko repeated what he said and Tsuna nodded. They exchange phone number and decided to call the other if they found Lambo.

"Senpai, you take left, I'll take right," Tsuna suggested.

Nodding, Akihiko turned right down the street, worrying about Lambo. Though Tsuna would say otherwise, Akihiko's first impression of Lambo is that he's just an innocent defenseless child and he believed that a defenseless kid shouldn't stay out by himself. But Akihiko doesn't know that hidden beneath that afro of his are innumerable grenades and weapons.

After awhile, Tsuna called saying that he had found Lambo by the riverside. Sighing in relieve, Akihiko rushed over to the riverside. By the time he got there, the sun has already begun to set. There he saw Tsuna who had Lambo on his lap. Lambo was speaking about something; Akihiko couldn't hear from where he stood.

"Sawada-san!" He called.

Both Tsuna and Lambo turned around. Akihiko ran over to them and picked up Lambo and flipped him back and forth to make sure he's not injured anywhere. "Are you alright, little one?" He asked.

"Gyahahaha, the great Lambo-san is always alright!" Lambo laughed.

Smiling softly he patted Lambo's head and put Lambo down. "Sawada-san," he began and Tsuna seemed to know what he's talking about.

"Un, let's go home," Tsuna said and picked up Lambo who was holding onto Tsuna's leg like his life is depend on it.

The walk was peaceful. Tsuna was contented with having a sleeping Lambo on his arm while Akihiko walked slowly next to Tsuna. On the way home, he called his parents to inform them that he would be having dinner at a friend house. They soon reached their destination.

"Ara, Tsu-kun, Akihiko-kun, and Lambo-kun, great timing, dinner is just about to be ready!" Nana called out as they entered the house.

Glancing over at the dining table, Akihiko saw that Reborn had already stationed himself there. Dinner came and went by pretty quick. Suddenly, Nana remembered she have to deliver something to the neighbor.

"Now kids, be good, I'll be back in just a minute," She smiled and left the house.

Several things happened at once the moment she left. Lambo threw the knife that he was holding at Reborn, who deflected it with ease. He then threw several other things at Reborn who merely deflected them all. One of the deflected items hit squarely on Lambo head.

"To-le-rate…" He sniffled and cried like crazy. Akihiko watched in astonishment as Lambo produced a giant pink Bazooka out of nowhere and shot himself with it.

"Lambo!" He shouted in alarm.

The room is filled with pink smoke and when it cleared, a single man stood on the spot where Lambo had been.

"Yare, yare." He yawned lightly. Then he noticed Reborn and said, "Reborn, I'm stronger now, I'll defeat you!"

But Reborn merely ignored him and continued sipping his drink.

"Why you! Die!" he shouted and charged at Reborn with a pair of horn that sparked with electricity.

As he approached Reborn, Reborn merely smack against the man's cheek, successfully render the attack useless. Akihiko and Tsuna watched in bewilderment as Reborn smack against the man's cheek. He collapsed and started to cry, "To-le-rate…wah!" and ran out of the house.

Both Akihiko and Tsuna shared a look and Tsuna turned to Reborn. "W-what was that?" he asked.

"Dame-Tsuna, that was the Bovino's Family famous weapon, the Ten-Year-Bazooka. It was rumored to be able to switch your current self with the one in the future for about five minutes, truly remarkable." Reborn stated.

Akihiko looked skeptical. Travelling to the future is implausible. But he couldn't find any other acceptable explanation for the man so he'll have to stick with what Reborn said. Tsuna merely gaped in awe.

Then Nana returned with a child Lambo in her arms. Lambo quickly jumped up and launched several grenades at Reborn, who deflected them all with no effort.

"Ara, toys these days are so realistic," Nana laughed at the whole exchange.

Looking at the time, it was pretty late and Akihiko stood up and approached Nana. "Thank you for having me," he bowed and offered a small nod to Tsuna and friends.

"Good bye, Akihiko-kun! You should come over more often!" Nana said cheerily as she walked him over to the door.

"If I'm not imposing," He replied with a typical answer. "Good bye," and bowed lightly.

That night, as Akihiko's mother was ironing the clothes for tomorrow, he approached her quietly.

"Mother?" He started.

"Yes, Aki-kun?" She replied warmly.

"I-I was wondering, i-if you could teach me how to cook?" he mumbled.

His mother turned around and beamed at him, "Of course!"

Akihiko could not help but smile widely. He hadn't smile like this in a really long time. Later that night, he slept soundly. His original goal lay forgotten, seem like the half-crafted fan would have to wait.

* * *

The weekend came and past, Akihiko sighed in annoyance as he only got little works done. Deciding to skip school today, he locked himself in his workshop, determined to get some work done. This wasn't the first time he had done this. Whenever his father received a big project from clients, he would take a day or two off from school in order to help out. Though this time, he took a day off for himself rather than for his father. But the school doesn't need to know that, especially Hibari. Akihiko shuddered as he imagined what Hibari would do to him if he ever found out that he ditched school.

Oh well, work is more important. Akihiko thought.

He didn't know how long he had stayed in his workshop, but a sudden phone call caused him to snap out of his working-trance. He looked at the clock and it read the usual time that school would end. It meant that it must be someone from school.

Picking it up, Tsuna was the caller. "A-ano, Mizumoto-senpai, could you meet me at the corner near my house?" He stuttered.

Well it's about time for him to take a break anyway, so he answered, "Yes," and waited for Tsuna to hang up.

Tsuna hung up and let out a sigh of relief as the gun that was held against his head was lower.

"Good job, Tsuna. We can begin the family entrance test once Mizumoto arrive," Reborn smirked.

"Reborn, why must we do this? They are going to get hurt!" Tsuna cried.

"Tche, if he died then it's because he's not worthy to be in the Mafia," Gokudera scoffed.

"Yo, who are you little guys?" Yamamoto asked and picked up Reborn.

"I'm Reborn, a Hitman for the Vongola Famiglia," Reborn stated coolly.

"Ah I see, I see," Yamamoto nodded.

Tsuna was shocked at Yamamoto acceptance. But then Yamamoto whispered to Tsuna, "Haha, he's playing pretend isn't he?"

"Hieee, no he's not!" Tsuna wailed mentally.

Soon Akihiko arrived and see the group. He waved lightly and Tsuna and Yamamoto returned the gesture.

Akihiko looked questionably at Tsuna, wondering why he called him here.

Without waiting for Tsuna to explain himself, Reborn announced, "We will now begin the 10th Generation Vongola Famiglia entrance test!"

Quirking an eyebrow, Akihiko looked questionably at Reborn. Reborn smirked and said, "Dodge these," and produced several throwing knives, which were quickly send flying in Akihiko and Yamamoto.

Both Akihiko and Yamamoto dodged all of them. Akihiko is still confused about the whole thing and furrowed his eyebrows. Beside him, Yamamoto was laughing, "Hahaha this is fun! When did toys become so real?"

"Toys?" Akihiko thought questionably and arrived at the conclusion that this must be some sort of games. Sighing mentally, "Tsuna called me out because of a game?" He thought, a little bit disappointed. Nevertheless, he still participated in this so call "game". It would act as good training for reflexes.

After awhile, the numbers of projectile seemingly increased and became more dangerous. Then suddenly Reborn said, "Tsuna, as a boss, you have to participate too," and kicked Tsuna into the danger zone.

"Hieee!" He screamed and amazingly dodged everything that was sent his way. Akihiko was secretly impressed with Tsuna's skill, Yamamoto as well.

"What, Juudaime! But Reborn! I don't want to hurt Juudaime!" Gokudera exclaimed from beside Reborn.

"Gokudera, just imagined killing the other two and don't aim at Tsuna." Reborn advised and Gokudera flashed Tsuna a wink, to which Tsuna have absolutely no idea what he's trying to say.

Gokudera held up the dynamites and said, "Please dodge this Juudaime!"

But Tsuna can't hear him over the explosions. Had Akihiko been a bystander, he would have found the situation to be a little bit comical. But unfortunately, he's in the danger zone himself. Then suddenly, Lambo appeared out of nowhere and carry a _Missile Launcher_. "How on earth did he get one of those things," Akihiko thought. Lambo aimed the missiles at Reborn but for some ridiculous reasons, all the missiles flew off track and head toward Tsuna, Akihiko and Yamamoto instead. Frustrated with the outcome, Lambo switched with his future self, who is carrying a rocket launcher. "What the...," Akihiko muttered. And the same thing happened with the rocket launcher. Instead of going toward Reborn, it headed toward Tsuna. Along with Gokudera's dynamites and Reborn's sub-machine guns, the shots made a great explosion.

Yamamoto, seeing the danger, quickly grab hold of Tsuna and held him close, intending to shield Tsuna from the blast. What he doesn't expect was for Akihiko to wrap his arms around them and moved them so that Akihiko's back is to the explosion.

"Safe." Akihiko grunted.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera's voice rang out through the smoke. "Juudaime! Are you alright?" He shouted.

As the smoke slowly cleared, Akihiko let go of both Yamamoto and Tsuna. So as when the smoke cleared completely, it looked as if only Yamamoto did most of the work and Akihiko only stood by doing nothing.

"Juudaime!" Gokudera quickly rushed over to Tsuna who was being held by Yamamoto.

"Tche, good work, baseball-idiot." Gokudera reluctantly admitted then he glared at Akihiko. "As for you, you did nothing!" He snarled. "You don't deserve to be a part of the family if you can't even protect the boss!"

Akihiko quirked an eyebrow but didn't say anything, though he suddenly realized the purpose of this meeting. From what Gokudera said about family, he concluded that it must be some sort of test to be Tsuna's friend. It seemed like this wasn't a pointless game after all. Back to matter at hand, Yamamoto and Tsuna was about to say something but Reborn approached them saying, "You passed. Both of you. Welcome to the Family."

"But Reborn!" Gokudera protested.

Akihiko nodded lightly and waved them goodbye. As he walked off, Gokudera noticed the burn mark on the back of Akihiko's jacket. The back of the once beige Jacket is now covered in black chars. He suddenly connected the dots. "D-did he…?" Gokudera trailed off. Behind him Yamamoto nodded lightly.

"Gokudera-kun, you were wrong. He shielded both of us," Tsuna said softly. For some reason, Akihiko reminded him of the moon. Like the many phases of the moon, even though one can't see a new moon, but she's still there, just watching us in the darkness, quietly. This is the silent Moon. Something in his intuition told him that. They watched Akihiko until he left their views.

* * *

To Be continued...

**AN: If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to leave a review, I'll answer it in the AN of the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I Own Nothing Except My OC Mizumoto AKihiko!  
**

**AN: ************About 3-4 chapters to go then I'm finally done with the Daily Life Arc. Can't wait to write Kokuyo Arc! XD **  
******I personally enjoyed writing this chapter. So I hope you'll like it too!**

**To Akuma-chan25300: the answer is yes ;) I won't say too much. But most of the time, I will not use OCs if there are Canon Characters that I think will fit the role. Wink* You can try to guess, though I won't say if you guessed correctly or not. It would be spoilers then ._.  
**

* * *

Akihiko is dizzy. Akihiko is tired. Akihiko is sleepy. Akihiko shall sleep. That was what went through Akihiko's head at the moment. That was totally out of character. In the next five seconds, he's already fast asleep on the roof. Technically, it couldn't be considered as sleeping, more like a bad case of food poisoning that could knocked out most people. And Akihiko, unfortunately, belonged to that group of people.

"Hieee, Mizumoto-senpai!" Tsuna wailed as Akihiko collapsed.

"Don't worry, Juudaime! He'll be fine!" Gokudera said.

"Maa, he doesn't look so good though," Yamamoto forced a laugh and poked Akihiko on the cheek.

"What should I do?" Tsuna panicked and start running around.

"Dame-Tsuna, if you don't even knows what to do in this situation, you should go die," Reborn smirked and pulled the trigger. The bullet sped toward Tsuna's head and Bam!

"Reborn! Get Mizumoto-senpai to the infirmary with my dying will!" Tsuna shouted, now half naked, and carried the unconscious Akihiko rushing down stairs.

_Several hours before..._

_Akihiko was silently walking to school when he noticed something out of ordinary. From the nearby trash can lay a broken can of soda, which were smoking with this suspicious purple cloud. A crow flew by, inhaled the smoke and died instantly. Sweating lightly, Akihiko quickly inched away from there and pulled out his cell phone._

_After awhile the person from the other side picked up, "Poison control center, how may I help you today?"_

_Akihiko gave her the street name and described the situation then he hung up and continued on his way, feeling oddly satisfied._

_Arriving at school, he was tackled by a flying Ryohei._

"_AKIHIKO!" He shouted. "Where were you?! I heard you got hit by a car! Are you ok to the extreme!?"_

_Gently prying Ryohei off him, Akihiko gave him a look that scream, "Do I look like I got hit by a car?"_

"_But Akihiko, someone told me there was this huge explosion to the extreme and they saw you entered that area!" Ryohei shouted and hugged Akihiko again to make sure he was really alright._

_To some first year, this is something new, but to older students like second or third, this is considered as a regular occurrence. Smiling inwardly, Akihiko thought that Ryohei is like a little kid, very innocent and simple-minded. Maybe that's why Akihiko felt that he have to look over him as well. _

"_Ryohei, I am well," Akihiko reassured Ryohei and patted him lightly. _

"_If you didn't get hit by a car to the extreme, then why weren't you at school?" Ryohei asked and let go of Akihiko._

_Akihiko quirked an eyebrow and sighed. "Work," _

_Then Ryohei looked as if he suddenly remembered something from a long time ago. He remembered that Akihiko once told him, that he would take a day off from school every now and then to help out with parents' work. _

"_Good, you remembered." Akihiko nodded noticing Ryohei's expression and walked off to the school building._

"_Oi, Wait up! Akihiko!" Ryohei shouted and ran after Akihiko. "I haven't seen you in three days!"_

"_Hibari would bite you if you shouted again," Akihiko commented lightly as he changed into his indoor shoes. _

_True enough, Hibari was just finishing up his patrol for inappropriate dress codes and possession of dangerous objects. He glanced at Akihiko and Ryohei and continued on his patrol._

_Ryohei was about to challenge Hibari again but decided not to as he spotted his sister off to the side chatting happily with Hana. He sweated lightly because he totally does not want to be bitten in front of his sister. She would scold him again for getting into unnecessary fight. _

"_A-ah, Hibari…"Ryohei stuttered nervously and Akihiko nodded in response to Hibari's "greeting"._

_That seemed to shut Ryohei up real good. Akihiko inwardly smile as they walked silently to their classroom. The lesson passed by boringly as Ryohei once again fell asleep and Akihiko gazed boringly at the sky through the window, wondering when he would finish his fans._

_Finally it was time for break and Akihiko went to the bathroom to do his business. When he was done, he walked back down the hall and spotted Tsuna and friends. Gokudera and Yamamoto were fighting, well more like Gokudera yelling and Yamamoto laughing. They were fighting over who should be Tsuna's right hand man, though Yamamoto wasn't taking what Gokudera said too seriously. As Akihiko passed by, he could not help but joked, "No, none of you are his right hand man. It's me." He stated in a deadpanned tone. _

_Both Gokudera and Yamamoto were stunned by his sudden appearance while Tsuna wasn't affected since he'd already seen him coming. They exchanged greetings and as Akihiko walked away Gokudera finally snapped out of his stupor and bellowed, "What did you say, fan-freak!?" _

"_Ne, Gokudera-kun he was just joking, right Yamamoto-kun?" Tsuna laughed lightly. But one response from Yamamoto shut him up. "He was?" asked a bewildered Yamamoto._

_Having caught this exchange of conversation, Akihiko chuckled lightly as he entered his classroom and sat patiently, waiting for the bell to ring. Classes started again and Akihiko listen attentively. This was his favorite subject, Japanese Literature. He claimed that he felt calming when he read Haiku or old Japanese poem._

_Lunch came by and Akihiko asked Ryohei if he would like to join him for lunch. Ryohei refused the invitation, claiming that he has to finish up some club activities. Akihiko nodded in understanding. Usually when Ryohei have to "finish some club activities" that would mean that either a tournament came up or paperwork. As a fellow president of the Traditional Dance Club, Akihiko totally understand the hassles of having to submit a club report every month to the student council committee. _

_Well most of the time, his monthly club report would read, "Hibari." And that would explain everything, ranging from club budget to "requesting for new supplies form". Though that doesn't really work after a couple of times he did it. So he was stuck doing legit paperwork, which included adding and subtracting club's income and spending not to mention keeping track of club members, though Ryohei had it easy for this one – he doesn't have as many "club members" that are usually there to watch him perform than actually learning. Back to the math portion of the paperwork, for such a mathematical challenged Ryohei, paperwork is a nightmare, though a calculator would have helped. "Actually, no it wouldn't have helped much if Ryohei break it every time on 'accident' for extreme buttons pushing," Akihiko mentally sighed. _

_As Ryohei was about to leave Akihiko, Kyoko and Hana showed up with a dish of rice balls. _

"_Ah, Onii-san, Akihiko-senpai, we made these today during Home Economic class," Kyoko smiled and offered them the rice balls._

_Ryohei happily accepted and Akihiko nodded lightly in appreciation. Akihiko suggested for Ryohei to take the whole plate since he would probably be working hard on the paper work, and wouldn't have time to go get lunch anyway. So these rice balls would make a perfect lunch for Ryohei. _

"_That's great, thank you to the extreme, Akihiko!" Ryohei laughed and carried the plate away._

"_Akihiko-senpai, we have some more and left them in the classroom. If you don't mind you could follow us." Kyoko offered._

_Akihiko nodded lightly and stood up to follow them. Arriving at the class, he noticed that other girls are giving the boys their hand-made rice balls. Kyoko also gave him some, though he felt that this rice ball was off somehow. Nevertheless, he took it, since it just wouldn't do to refuse food. He planned on saving it and ate it later on the roof. He nodded his thanks and walked off._

_Arriving at the roof, he took out the rice balls from Kyoko and ate it silently. _

_That was when Tsuna and friends came up. After Akihiko had left the room, Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto went into the class room and Kyoko offered the plate of rice balls. But one glance from Tsuna and he knew that the rice balls were poisoned. After all, who wouldn't notice the worms and the purple color? Actually, only Tsuna saw that, since both Yamamoto and Gokudera happily accepted it. But a whack from Tsuna hand, the rice ball went flying away. "Don't eat it! You'll die!" Tsuna had shouted fervently. And most people took those sentences as a declaration of love. Tsuna later found out that beside them, Kyoko had gave both Ryohei and Akihiko the rice balls. He had quickly gone to check to make sure that they did not receive the poisoned rice balls. He found Ryohei and asked him if he had eaten the rice balls, to which Ryohei answered, "Yes to the extreme! It was delicious!" and yet he still running around like nothing had happened, therefore Tsuna concluded that his plate of rice ball is not poisoned. At first he assumed that Akihiko would be fine too if Ryohei was fine. But something in his intuition nagged him to go search for Akihiko. And here he was at the roof, looking at Akihiko, who currently had a half bitten rice ball rolling on the ground. _

_And that was what had happened._

Rushing through the hallway, people looked weirdly at Tsuna, who's carrying someone twice his size. One had to be amazed at what Dying Will can do. Ignoring their looks, he quickly arrived at the infirmary. Kicking the door opened, he laid Akihiko onto an empty bed. However, the school nurse wasn't there.

As the dying will bullet's affect ended, Tsuna was put back into his panic mode. Then Yamamoto and Gokudera suddenly arrived and from a nearby wall, a secret entrance swung open, revealing Reborn.

Reborn started, "Such poison can only be made by one person. You can come out now Bianchi." He directed his voice to the door leading outside to the hallway.

Upon seeing a beautiful woman's face, Gokudera suddenly grew pale and fainted on the spot. Great now they have two unconscious people. Yamamoto dragged Gokudera over to another empty bed and set him there.

"It's you!" Tsuna shouted referring to the fact that she was the one who gave him the poisoned soda, which he dropped on accident.

"Reborn," Bianchi ignored Tsuna completely and started to say, "Please come back to me! We can go explore the world together again!" She hugged Reborn.

"Bianchi, you know I can't do that. I have to teach Tsuna how to be a boss," Reborn shook his head sadly.

"Yes, yes, it's that entire brat fault. If only he's not here, then Reborn would be free and shall return to me." She muttered. Seeing that she cannot convince Reborn to go with her, she stood up to leave, but Tsuna stopped her.

"W-wait, Bianchi-san," He started and Bianchi turned around and glared at him.

"What?" She growled.

"Can I have the antidote?" Tsuna asked bravely.

Bianchi looked at him questionably. "What antidote?"

"For your poison," He explained.

Bianchi let out a great laugh and said, "I have no antidote, boy. Why would I, the Poison Scorpio, need antidote when I am immune to all of my poisons?"

"B-but then, Mizumoto-senpai would die!" Tsuna shouted.

"Silly Tsuna, we all will die someday," Reborn said.

"But not by unnatural mean!" Tsuna shrieked.

When Bianchi left, Gokudera magically woke up. Everyone turned to look at him. He grimaced lightly and looked over to Akihiko, who now had on this serene expression on his face.

Gokudera said, "He will be fine." And he meant it this time.

"How can you tell, Gokudera-kun?"Tsuna asked.

Gokudera grimaced and started to tell Tsuna and Yamamoto his story involving his sister.

"When I was young, my father usually made me gave piano recitals. But then at one particular recital, I remembered, my sister baked me some cookies. Back then, I didn't know that whatever she touches would turn into poison so I happily ate it. But then when I was about to perform, the poison kicked in and I performed horribly. Though for some twisted reasons, the people enjoyed it and claimed it to be 'abstract' and 'genius-at-work'. From that they on, my father would have Bianchi baked some cookie and have me eat it before each recitals." Gokudera shuddered. "After awhile, I started to associate Bianchi's face with her poisoned cookies and it will just remind me of those horrible experiences." He paled lightly and looked as if he was about to throw up.

Tsuna and Yamamoto gaped in horror. "That's horrible," Both of them thought.

"Gokudera-kun," Tsuna started.

"Juudaime, as someone who had experienced with her poison, fan-freak won't die. If he has the will to live that is." He muttered. Then he seemed to have a great flashback moment, "I remembered I didn't want to die such a stupid death. Death by poisoned cookies due to a recital…" he murmured to himself and shuddered again.

Meanwhile, in Akihiko's landscape. "Where am I?" He thought. Then suddenly he remembered he ate that rice ball, "Oh no, did I choked and die or something? No that is stupid! Must wake up! Yah!" He shouted disapprovingly. "How could I die such a meaningless death? I haven't even finished with my project yet! Yah! Wake up Akihiko!" Then he saw the light and he jolted out of the infirmary bed.

"I dreamt I died of rice ball…" Akihiko muttered darkly.

"What do you mean dream, of course you did-"Gokudera shouted but Tsuna quickly covered his mouth and laughed nervously. "A-ha-ha, what a strange dream." And Yamamoto joined in.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. "Ah, got to go. Bye" Akihiko said and walked out of the room, still dazed from that strange dream.

When school ended, Akihiko rushed over to Ryohei to see if he is ok. "I dreamt I died by eating rice ball," Akihiko told him.

Ryohei laughed loudly. "What a strange dream to the extreme. The rice ball that I ate was very delicious!"

Akihiko nodded lightly and together they walked home.

* * *

The next few days passed by in a blur. Actually, there were many strange events, as Akihiko would call it. One of the more memorable one would be that Tsuna running around and sprouting embarrassing secrets. Why on earth would anyone do that? Akihiko doesn't know. What he doesn't know was that Tsuna was infected with the Skull Disease that would cause the infected person to die of embarrassment. Though Tsuna was lucky enough to be cured by doctor Shamal, who later became the school nurse.

Then another memorable day was that, as Akihiko was walking to school one day, he saw a very interesting scene. He saw Tsuna dove into the water to save a person who fell of the bridge due to an explosion. "Very honorable," Akihiko commented and continued on his walk to school.

Actually an even stranger thing occur the day after that, Tsuna just so happened to drag Ryohei all the way to school while running at "extreme" speed. And since then, Ryohei had bugged Tsuna non-stop and asked him to join the boxing club.

"Akihiko, did you see that?!" Ryohei chattered excitedly to his friend. "He was so extreme! And I felt inspired by him to the extreme!"

Akihiko quirked an eyebrow, asking "what are you going to do now?"

"Why, I asked him to come take a look at the boxing club!" Ryohei shouted.

Akihiko sighed, "Did you ask or force?" he commented.

"I asked to the extreme and he finally agreed!" Ryohei replied.

Nodding slightly, Akihiko let Ryohei know that he would be coming over to the boxing club afterschool to watch.

Afterschool came and Akihiko hurried over to the Boxing room. True enough, Tsuna was there, along with Gokudera, Yamamoto, Kyoko, Hana and… master PaoPao, according to Ryohei.

"Ryohei, I want to see a match between you and him," master PaoPao said.

"Yes, master!" Ryohei shouted. "Tsuna, let's fight to the extreme!"

Akihiko watched the match in interest. Like any other person, except Tsuna, he did not notice that master PaoPao took out a gun and shot Ryohei with it. But Ryohei didn't seem to be effected. Master PaoPao is impressed. "Sasagawa Ryohei, your passionate personality is needed for the family." He murmured.

"Sawada, Join the boxing club!" Ryohei yelled.

Tsuna suddenly fell but sprang back up half naked. He shouted, "Refused the offer with my Dying Will!" and defeated Ryohei. Since he was defeat, Ryohei have to accept Tsuna's refusal. The group then left the Boxing Club room. But then those Karate members came and challenged Ryohei. Earlier that day, they had challenged Ryohei once, but Ryohei defeat all of them. Now they are back with stronger people, hoping to defeat Ryohei.

"Sasagawa, I'm going to defeat you today!" the fat one claimed.

"Let's fight to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted and quickly defeat them all. Akihiko watched half-heartedly.

But then Hibari came around and threatened, "If you crowd again, I'll bite you to death!" He warned. This translate to, "don't make so much noise, you are disturbing me." Then he glared at the Karate club members and walked away, tucking his tonfa securely beneath his jacket. Ryohei and Akihiko walked home together after that. Walking home together, Akihiko and Ryohei can't help but feel excited about the next few days. They were sure Hibari felt the same. The three of them are waiting for the big day. The day that contained important matter concerning for all three presidents, for Boxing, Traditional Dance, and Disciplinary Committee.

* * *

Then finally, the big day came, the day when all clubs representatives meet together to discuss important matter such as room arrangement. This is considered important because some people like Hibari want a quite place, and some athletes like Ryohei required an open field so that he has more spaces to work with and others like Akihiko who enjoyed having the company of other clubs with similar interest. Hibari, Akihiko and Ryohei each sat at their respective spots for their club. The president of the student council led this meeting and called out club names with their respective room.

"…the Wrestling club would be in the first unused classroom, on the second floor of the west wing, and the Traditional Dance Club would be the room next to that…" The president was about to continue when Akihiko cut him off.

"Objection, please move my room elsewhere." Akihiko stated.

"Mizumoto-san, may I please ask the reason for your request?" The President asked.

"It would be a great distraction for my club due to excessive noise."

"What did you say?" The wrestling representative bellowed in anger.

"Please keep your voice down, I don't appreciate your yelling," Akihiko stated coolly and gave the speaker a glance as if proving his point about them, the wrestling club, being noisy.

"Why you!" He shouted and made a lunge toward Akihiko. Akihiko easily moved his body out of the way. The wrestler was about to attack him again but was interrupted by none other than Hibari.

"Herbivore," Hibari stated and cause the wrestling club's president to glare at him, to which he return with his own stare. He finally back down after Hibari's gaze intensified.

"Ahem…" The President cleared his throat lightly. "Ok so then the Traditional Dance Club room would be move to the first floor, first empty room of the East wing. If there are no objections," He glanced around before continuing, "Ikebana club would be next to the Traditional Dance Club…" and Akihiko was satisfied. The flower arrangement club is always welcome due to their polite and peaceful nature. Plus they are also artistic. If Akihiko had his way, he would have requested both the Sadou and Ikebana to be stationed near his club. Sadou means the way of Tea, in other word, a club dedicated to tea ceremony.

The list went on and on until they got to the boxing club, "The boxing club would be move to the second floor instead of the first floor where they are at. And the Karate Club would get the former Boxing room."

Ryohei had on this "what is the meaning of this!" face and shouted. "Why!?"

"Because my club is bigger than your," The Karate's president smirked.

"Objection!" Akihiko stated. He mentally sighed; this isn't the first time the Karate club decided to bully Ryohei. Technically, they challenged him and Ryohei totally defeat them. Now they held a grudge and wish to get Ryohei back through this way.

"What now?" The Karate's representative scowled.

"I see no reason of replacing the current Boxing room with Karate room. Since you claimed to not have enough room, then what will it change if you were to move into a room of the same size as the previous one." Akihiko quirked an eyebrow and shot Ryohei a look, as if saying, "Don't worry."

"W-well, I need the empty field that the current boxing club has!" He claimed

"Don't you already have your own?" Akihiko merely replied. "In fact, if I recalled correctly, you have an extra unused room to be your dojo."

"N-no, I-I want the…"

"You don't mean to tell me, a person as smart as you, can't even manage his spaces properly."

"Of course I can!" He shouted.

"Then I see no other reason for you to request for room change," Akihiko concluded and rendered him speechless. He mentally sighed again. He hasn't had to speak this much since a long time. Hopefully that's all he will have to say for today. He felt like he had already used up his daily words limit.

"Well, Mizumoto-san got a point there," The President stated," Maa, then both the Karate and the Boxing club will stay in their current spot!"

Akihiko smiled lightly at Ryohei and received a nod in appreciation. The President continued to list out clubs and rooms names and Akihiko started to zone out because he knew Hibari is more than capable of intimidating these small fries.

"…and the Disciplinary Committee would be in the Reception room. Any objections?"

"What?" the Tree committee shouted.

"Is there a problem?" Hibari merely stated but not one dare challenged him.

Chuckling slightly, Akihiko observed the whole room. They were all afraid of Hibari.

"Then this meeting is officially over!" declared the President.

Later that day, people would find the Tree Committee, the Wrestling Club, and the Karate Club's members getting beat up and Hibari excuse was, "They were crowding in front of me."

When school was over, as Akihiko walking through the school ground, he saw Hibari holding two unconscious people over the window. They looked suspiciously like Yamamoto and Gokudera.

"Wait, isn't that the window to the Reception Room?" Akihiko thought. Shaking his head lightly, he continued his walked when suddenly Hibari dropped them! Akihiko's eyes widened. It's not like Hibari to be so careless and endanger someone life to that level. Falling from there while unconscious is extremely dangerous and said people could totally lose their lives. Something must have happened for Hibari to lost focus. Indeed, because at that very same moment, Hibari was slapped by Tsuna with a sandal. Any person, if they were in this situation, would have a single thought, "Did I just get slap by a sandal?"And Hibari was irritated so he let go.

Akihiko watched in horror and was about to do something when Tsuna jumped out of the window half-naked and rescued the boys. Akihiko sighed in relief but he hadn't even finished sighing when an explosion occurred within the Reception Room.

"Hibari!" Concern for his friend, Akihiko rushed back upstairs and swung open the Reception Room door.

Hibari stood there with his back to Akihiko, staring at the opened window. "Hibari?" Akihiko asked. Hibari turned around and gave Akihiko an excited smirk. This smirk told Akihiko that he had found a worthy opponent. Nodding lightly, Akihiko started to clean up the room but stopped when Hibari called over his subordinates to do the work while he gaze intensely outside the window, the smirk never left his face. When they were done, Akihiko nodded lightly to Hibari and walked home.

* * *

To be continued...

**AN: Once again, reviews are loved! I work harder too! Cover page is already done too. Well technically I uploaded that during Chapter 4... And yes I drew it! XD I think I shall do a TYL one...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except Mizumoto Akihiko, my OC.  
**

**AN: College has started. That mean I will have less time to work on my story. And sorry for the late Update. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!  
**

* * *

Looking at the calendar in dismay, Akihiko gently fanned himself. After a moment, he slammed his head onto the table top. "Ugh. It's that time of the year again." He muttered and had on this face of pure dissatisfaction. He lifted his head up and gazed with silent anger at the red letters written on the calendar. It read, "Akihiko, don't forget, Sport Day! – Ryohei"

Akihiko suddenly had on this look of far away, as if reliving some of the most _beautiful_ memories he has… as noted by the strangely italicized word, it was meant to be taken as a sarcastic remark.

_The Year before…_

"_Akihiko get ready! Extreme Pole Knocking, Charge!" Ryohei shouted and dragged Akihiko with him despite Akihiko's protest. The participants of the events met heatedly as Ryohei swung his right arm to clear the way. But he had failed to realize the extra weight that is known as Akihiko, whose hand he had grabbed in a moment of excitement, that he currently held in his right hand. The human bat swatted away the opposing team beautifully. It was then Ryohei remembered Akihiko and in his shock, loosened the grip, which resulted in Akihiko flying through the air. _

"_Ryohei!" Akihiko bellowed in rage as he sailed through the air and collided with more incoming people._

"_Ah, so sorry to the extreme, Akihiko!"Ryohei shouted. If there were a Pokémon fan somewhere, they would have shouted, "Team Rocket, blasting off again!"_

_Akihiko landed in a heap of jumble mess with the other students. "Ryohei…damn you…" He growled._

Bam! That was the sound of Akihiko's head meeting the table top.

_The Year before That Year…_

"_Akihiko!" Ryohei shouted as he quickly approached Akihiko with the relay stick in hand. Akihiko's eyes widened in fear as Ryohei can't seem to stop and crashed against Akihiko. The relay stick that Ryohei held smacked soundly against Akihiko's head. _

Bam, Bam, Bam! Cue several head pounding session.

_The Year before That year before __**that **__year…_

"_Hm…" Ryohei stared at the piece of paper with great focus. It read, "Harisen" which mean those paper fans that are usually used in comedy. Then suddenly he seemed to have reached an epiphany. He plastered on this face of great happiness and ran off. _

_He quickly rushed over to Akihiko who was currently performing at the moment. "Akihiko, I need to borrow you!" He shouted and without waiting for Akihiko's respond, he dragged him across the field. Unfortunately, Akihiko was participating in an event at that time, and due to Ryohei's intervention. Akihiko's group lost. _

_When Ryohei reached the finishing line, the judge said, "Disqualified."_

"_What?" Ryohei complained and thus lost in the event of "Scavenger Hunt."_

_The Year before That year before __**that **__year before _That_ year…_

_Let's just say it wasn't a particular great flash back for Akihiko…_

Bam, Bam, Bam, Crack! That must have hurt.

Shuddering involuntarily, Akihiko snapped himself out of his beautiful flashback. He groaned painfully and lifted his hand up to massage his temples. Surely, Ryohei would do something stupid again this year. He sighed and scowled lightly as he got ready for school.

"My head hurts…" he groaned. Surely anyone head would hurt from repeatedly hitting the table.

He totally did not look forward to school today. Maybe he can ditch school again. On second thought, Hibari would kill him if he found out that the reason Akihiko missed school was not because he had to help out with family business but because he was too afraid of Ryohei to go to school.

Trudging painfully slow against the road, Akihiko marched on quietly down his road of doom.

* * *

Class came and went quickly. With each ticking minute Akihiko grew more fearful of the foreboding future. He was so lost in his thought that he didn't realize that the teacher has long given them instructions to meet up and prepare for the incoming Athletic Fest. A hand clasped suddenly onto his shoulder and acting on instinct, he lashed out at the owner's of said hand.

"Wow, Aki!" Ryohei exclaimed at the incoming strike and skillfully intercepted it.

"Ryohei" Akihiko replied monotonously as Ryohei let go of his arm.

"You don't look too happy to see me," Ryohei pouted but nevertheless dragged Akihiko to the meeting room.

Akihiko rolled his eyes as if saying, "You are just imagining things."

Arriving to the meeting room, Akihiko positioned himself somewhere near the window so as to enjoy the cool breeze from the overly crowded room. After all, there is a reason why there are different classroom of the same grade due to limited size per room.

As per usual, Ryohei took over the meeting with his passionate—extreme—personality. Akihiko zoned out, already knowing what he's going to say. Actually it wouldn't be so bad if Ryohei become the Captain. At least he wouldn't get to drag Akihiko around like he used to. Akihiko's blood chilled when he heard Ryohei's next sentence. "But, I am NOT going to be the captain!"

Immediately snapping his head over to Ryohei's direction, Akihiko face slowly drained of color. He had on this expression that said, "I beg your pardon, can you repeat that?"

Ryohei continued his speech, ignoring Akihiko's completely. "Instead, I think Sawada is more suited to be the captain!" He shouted passionately.

On second thought the idea of Tsuna leading is not so bad after all. The class had mix feeling on this matter and several students voiced their disagreement, causing the crowd to start a childish argument.

"What did you say, you bastard!? Juudaime is totally qualified for that position!" Gokudera bellowed when someone commented that Tsuna is not suitable for the job.

"Kya, if Gokudera-kun said so, then I have no objection!" the Gokudera-kun Fan Club squealed and stopped protesting.

"Haha, yea, Tsuna, I'm counting on you!" Yamamoto laughed full-heartedly—and that shut up the Yamamoto-kun Fan Club.

"Oi, Teme! You guys better listen to Juudaime!" Gokudera growled to the rest of the class—there goes the majority of the room.

"Only a few left; keep going Gokudera!" Akihiko thought, too tired to deal with this childish matter at the moment. Unfortunately, Gokudera can only do so much, seemed like there were still a few stubborn students who were super adamant about their opinion and would not shut up at any time soon.

Sighing, Akihiko clear his throat lightly and speak in his usual tone, but everyone heard him just fine. He directed his voice at an underclassman.

"I see no problem with Tsuna's leading—unless, of course—you want to be the captain. But do you have that ability, Shiro-san?" Akihiko questioned in a tone as if it were just another everyday topic that one would usually have over a cup of tea. Everyone was taken aback by Akihiko's attitude.

"I am not in a mood for game at the moment, Shiro-san. Pray tell, what have you done in the past that give you the right to even suggest such things? Whereas Sawada-san has clearly contributed much to the class through both the Volleyball tournament and at that shady Challenge by Mochida," without waiting for him to speak, Akihiko continued—he was getting irritated. The entire day has been quite exhausting for him—having to constantly dread over the fact that Ryohei would do something stupid to him again this year. Adding to that, this little meeting was dragging on way too long for his taste. Now Akihiko understood why Hibari hates crowding. He would rather go do some dancing to relax himself after such a tiring day instead of staying here in this pointless meeting.

"Without further ado, let's conclude this meeting and agree on the fact that Tsuna will be the Captain of Team A, yes?" Akihiko said. That pretty much finalized the proposal as Tsuna is made Captain.

Tsuna thought he would rather prefer the stoic Akihiko over the current Akihiko—he seems a lot scarier. Technically this is the first time Tsuna and friends see this side of Akihiko. In his musing, he had completely forgotten the fact that most of his friends just nominated him to be Captain. Then it dawned on him and he gave out a shriek. "Hieee!"

Akihiko caught Tsuna's eyes and smiled sincerely as if saying, "I'm counting on you."

"Mizumoto-senpai!" Tsuna mentally shrieked.

"Juudaime, you are the best! Let's show them your ability—Oi get your hands off, baseball-freak!" Gokudera bellowed at Yamamoto, who now had his arm around Tsuna's shoulder.

"Do your best Tsuna!" Yamamoto laughed, completely ignored Gokudera outburst.

"Why you!" Gokudera growled and chased Yamamoto out of the room.

"Ah, wait, Gokudera, Yamamoto!" Tsuna said weakly and ran after his friends.

With that, the meeting finally came to an end, or so Akihiko thought. As people started to leave the room, Ryohei called Akihiko. Akihiko felt a shiver run down his spine. His sixth sense told him something bad going to happen and to leave the area immediately!

"Akihiko," Ryohei started and Akihiko froze from his spot. He slowly turned around and paled when he saw that extreme expression on Ryohei face.

"Y-yes?" Akihiko squeaked.

"Kyoko talked to me about the girls wanting to do cheerleading while, us, boys are doing the pole knocking." He stated.

Akihiko blinked stupidly at him as if saying, "And this concerns me, how?"

"Well, they all specifically requested that you to coach them because who's better pick than the graceful Dance Captain?" Ryohei exclaimed. "Sorry to the extreme, Aki, but you shall not participate in the pole knocking event this year!"

Akihiko mentally let out a huge sigh of relief and said a Thank You to whatever power helped him. He liked that idea, cheering them on rather than getting caught in one of Ryohei stupidity stunts. Beside, cheering for Tsuna doesn't sound that bad. Since after all, he did feel bad about having a hand at pushing that responsibility onto the boy's shoulder. This is a good way to show his support.

Akihiko nodded lightly and said, "I'll put the other team to shame."

Ryohei looked as if he wanted to add something as well. After a moment of consideration he confessed, "Aki, actually another reason why they wanted you to coach them is because your mother owns a Dance Studio. This means that they can borrow costume from you for their cheer."

Akihiko looked slightly annoyed at that but didn't say anything. He sighed. "I understand."

"Cheer to the Extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed and together they walked kept each other company on the way home.

* * *

The next day, school came and went just as fast. There were no club this week due to the upcoming athletic fest and most people are too busy training with their team to attend clubs. Akihiko met the girls of Team A on the roof.

"Mizumoto-senpai, sorry for asking you to do this," one of the underclassmen said.

"It's alright." Akihiko replied politely.

"Ne Kyoko-chan, are you sure it's a good idea? I mean he doesn't look like he knows anything about Ouendan." One of the classmate asked Kyoko. (Ouendan means something like cheerleading)

For some reason Akihiko felt ticked off by that remark.

"Don't worry. " Kyoko assured them.

The time flies by as Akihiko and the girls planned out the routine and the costume, as well as assigning part and roles.

"So you would do this during this part," Akihiko demonstrated. The girls nodded in understanding then suddenly Hana raised her hand.

"Yes, Hana-san."

"Just a quick question, where is your part in this routine?" Hana asked.

Akihiko looked quizzically at her and quirked an eyebrow at Kyoko, asking, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Ah, Akihiko-senpai, I forgot to tell you, but I signed you up for it as well." She smiled brightly.

A little bit of Akihiko just died then. He was pretty disappointed that Kyoko didn't tell him this sooner. Well this is just beautiful, an all girl Ouendan plus one guy. Now he had to redo all the routine to fit his part as well.

Since Akihiko has more experience when it comes to fan dancing, he would be leading the girls with their parts. So not only he had to create a dance that emphasizes on grace and beauty—due to the team having more girls than guy—but it also had to be powerful enough to suit the cheering spirit. In the end they chose to stick with something more traditional. They would incorporate fan dancing into the routine and they would wear red Hakama and red head band during the cheer. The fans are something that Akihiko has plenty at home and every girl has their own Hakama. Therefore, everything is pretty much ready except practice time.

Speaking of practice, Akihiko thought he saw Ryohei, Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto practicing Pole Knocking by the river. They seemed to be doing pretty badly. Akihiko wondered if he should lend a hand as well.

* * *

The week passed by pretty quickly until it is finally time for the Athletic Festival. As per usual the festival started with many events that either Team will participate on. Tsuna unfortunately placed last on his event. As he reached the finishing lines, Ryohei scolded him lightly for not giving his best. This of course made Gokudera retorted and thus another fight broke out. Akihiko who was standing in the middle of the argument was slightly annoyed by the constant yelling between his ears.

He raised his hands and put them over both Gokudera and Ryohei's mouths. "Shut up." He muttered as Gokudera and Ryohei struggled to pry his hands away.

"Good job," Akihiko smiled at the incoming Tsuna and released his hands.

"Ah, but I placed last though," Tsuna said sheepishly.

"Good effort," Akihiko stated. He noted that Tsuna sounded different than normal. He was about to put his hand on Tsuna's forehead when he heard Gokudera and Ryohei.

"How the heck are his grips so strong?" Gokudera muttered.

"Must be from holding a fan all day long," Ryohei replied in a hushed tone.

"Eh, really?" Gokudera surprisingly whispered back despite the fact that Akihiko can totally hear them. He turned around and gave them a glance then sighed and excused himself, as he had to go prepare for the next event.

Just when Akihiko left, the captain of the Sumo club came up to them and started to intimidate Tsuna. Of course, Ryohei and Gokudera, being the hot headed person they are, decided to knock said captain unconscious, angering Team C.

* * *

As Akihiko was leaving the bathroom, he saw the captain of the Karate club, who also happened to be the Captain of Team B. They gave each other a glance and Akihiko would have continued on had the captain not done something stupid.

The captain of Team B thought that it would be a good idea to go pick on some cute underclassmen, who just so happened to be the members of Team A.

"Leave her be," Akihiko stated as he got between the two.

"Get out of the way, Mizumoto, this is none of your business." He growled.

"She's from my team Ouendan," Akihiko stated, implying that it is his business to look out for member of his team.

"You asked for it," the Karate Captain growled and swung a strike at Akihiko, only for his strike to be block by a steel fan.

"Why you little!" He pulled back and prepared for a kick.

The moment he pulled back Akihiko has already rushed forward so that he would be well within the kick's range and duck, making the kick went completely over his head. He then followed up with an upper swipe, flipping opening the steel fan while doing so.

The captain of the Karate club quickly brought his hands down to block that strike went for a grappling move, intending on hitting the pressure point on Akihiko's arm.

"Chou no Mai: Early Flight" Akihiko muttered. Like the butterfly that flew out of your reach when you tried to catch it, Akihiko spun away from the grappling move and instead circle back and deliver a strike to the neck with the blunt end of the fan.

You can't be a captain of a club if you aren't good at whatever that club do; the Karate Club is no exception. Reacting swiftly, the captain of the Karate Club pulled in for a middle block, successfully intercepted Akihiko's strike. He launched a counter punch toward Akihiko and quickly followed up with a round house kick. But he didn't expect someone like Akihiko—merely a Dance Captain—could literally dance around his moves, as if he's trying to hit a constantly moving butterfly.

Realizing that the opponent he faced is no amateur, the captain readied his stance and prepared for stronger and advanced techniques.

Akihiko sighed lightly but nonetheless rushed straight ahead and as the oncoming kick drew near his head, he did a flip and jump over the kick. He spun in the air and executed a tornado kick, striking the Karate's captain away from him. Quickly descending on to the ground, he lunged forward and swiped his fan in an upward crescent shape. With the momentum from the lunged, plus the now disoriented opponent, the power being that swipe was enough to knock the captain unconscious. Akihiko was careful to not use the sharp side of the fan so that he wouldn't hurt his opponent too much.

As the captain unconscious body fell down the ground, Reborn showed up behind Akihiko and commented in a nonchalant tone, "Could be better."

To any other person, they would think that Akihiko's movements are extremely graceful and quick. But in the eyes of the world greatest hitman, Reborn, the fight lasted way too long.

Akihiko nodded lightly to acknowledge the comment and walked off. The underclassman that he was defending earlier had long run off. So there wasn't any point for Akihiko to stay. With his back turned away from Reborn, Akihiko failed to notice the smirk on Reborn's face.

* * *

With Tsuna and friends, a group of students from Team B came up to him and accused, "He did it! He ordered his member to beat up Captain!"

"Hieee, I would never do that!" Tsuna shrieked.

"Oh, pretty good, Sawada." Ryohei nodded his head in admiration.

"Good job Juudaime! As expected from Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted in awe. Both of them completely ignored Tsuna's denial.

"Lies! I have a witness!" The students shouted and pointed at Reborn.

"Yes, I saw a member of Team A beating up Captain of Team B" Reborn said innocently.

Tsuna suddenly had an epiphany. "Eh, Reborn! You did it didn't you!"

"No, it was Mizumoto," Reborn replied.

But for some strange reason, none of the students heard that exchanged. They were too caught up with the current situation to care about other matter.

"Resign! Sawada, resign! You are not fitted to be the Captain!" The opposing teams shouted. From their point of views, Tsuna has played dirty by taking out the opposing teams' captains. Therefore it is only right that he resigned himself.

The commotion was interrupted by an announcement, signaling the start of lunch, and that they would sort things out after lunch.

Lunch came by and the surrounding students glared at Tsuna at where he sat.

"Tch, those bastards, glaring at Juudaime like that!" Gokudera growled.

"Maa, maa, calm down," Yamamoto smiled.

"Gokudera, it's ok." Tsuna placated the hot-tempered boy.

Miura Haru, Tsuna new friend who is not even a student of Namimori School, had come to visit Tsuna during lunch. But when she noticed these glares, she wanted to do something.

"Mou, let Haru go confront these people!" Haru declared and stood up. But the poison Scorpio, Bianchi stopped her and instead offer the students her famous poison-cooking chocolate. As per usual, no one seems to notice the strangely purple smoke that arisen from the chocolate except Tsuna. He would have stopped them from eating but none of them paid him any mind. Well they all ate the chocolate happily only for them to fall unconscious due to the poison.

"Hieee!" Tsuna shrieked again as more people began to hate him even more.

Just then the announcement started again. "New announcement: due to the lack of captains, Team B and C will combine into Team B+C and will be led by none other than Hibari Kyoya! I repeat…"

The announcer repeated himself.

All the color drained from Tsuna's face as he heard that announcement. He noticed Ryohei and Akihiko approaching and asked them.

"Senpai! Where did you go?" He asked.

"I was telling the committee to change the team to the extreme!" He shouted while Akihiko looked bored.

"Eh! Why would you do that?" Tsuna shouted at the top of his lung.

"It was Master Pao Pao's suggestion. Such a wonderful suggestion to the extreme! I can see the passionate battle that will soon to come!" Ryohei declared passionately. Akihiko thought he saw burning flames appearing from behind Ryohei. "Though I didn't expect Hibari to join the event," Ryohei muttered to himself near the end.

"Ouendan," Akihiko told the group and left to go prepare for the upcoming event.

* * *

The girls all changed into their red Hakama and wore white Kimono. They each wore a red Headband as well and on their hands are gradient white to red paper fans. Akihiko has changed into a black Hakama and Kimono. His fans are white and he too had on a red headband.

"Relax and have fun." Akihiko told them as they stepped into the Area for Ouendan Event.

The girls are divided into three groups, front, middle, back. When the routine started, the front girl would walk forward gracefully and did two spins with arm outstretched and opened fan. On the last spins they would crouch down while closing the fan and wait for the Middle group to come up to them. The middle group would separate into two lines and stand perpendicular to the front group with their fans opened. Then the Akihiko would do back flips as the Back group twirl forward just as the Taiko drum started. The back group will stopped just behind the front group who were crouching and Akihiko would somersault over the crouching group and landed in the front with two powerful swipes to open up the fans. This would officially signal the beginning of the Cheer Routine.

The groups moved in sync with each other and occasionally they would snap their fans close, would jump up at the beating of drum and swipe down when they land. Then they would stomp their feet and twirl. With every stomp they would go, "NA-MI-MO-RI! TEAM-A-TA-TA-KA-E!" (Namimori! Team A fight!)

"SA-WA-DA-TA-TA-KA-E!" (Sawada Fight!)

Then at the end of the routine all the girls would form three circles around Akihiko and lean outward with their fans facing the away from the center of the circle. Then Akihiko would then jump up with his fans and land with a pose. His short black hairs fluttered gently with the red headband as he landed. So that it looks as if the Black Butterfly with Red antennae has landed in the middle of a Red Flower. Each and every girl is one petal of a giant flower and Akihiko would play the role of the Black Butterfly with his black Hakama and flowing headband as his "antennae".

The Ouendan Event ended with Team A winning. The next event would be the Pole Knocking Event. How Exciting!

As he left the field, he met Ryohei along the way. "Put them all to shame," Akihiko said, a ghost of a smirk formed on his face.

"That was beautiful to the extreme!" Ryohei gushed and gave his friend a pat on the shoulder.

"Good luck" Akihiko motioned his head toward the field. They both knew they need all the luck they can get in order to hope of even defeating Hibari's Team.

"Yosh! I'll defeat them all to the extreme!" Ryohei proudly declared with a smile and rushed into the field.

Akihiko watched on the sidelines with the girls as the boys rushed into the battle field passionately. He could totally hear Ryohei shouting at the top of his lung, "EXTREME POLEKNOCKING!"

He chuckled lightly. It was totally Ryohei to do what he just did, breaking the eardrums of those poor people who had the unfortunate opportunity to stand next to him. Akihiko noted that Tsuna is not so bad, staying pretty balanced on top of that pole. On second thought, is that pole tilting or something?

Oh wait it is. Akihiko mentally shook his head. They did something stupid again didn't they?

"Look, Sawada is recovering," Hana pointed out from next to him.

"Tsuna-kun is doing great today, isn't he?" Kyoko commented lightly.

Akihiko nodded. True enough, when Tsuna fell off the pole, he recovered and landed on the cavalcade made by Ryohei, Gokudera and Yamamoto. They were charging toward Hibari and Ryohei gave out a war cry.

Something must have happened as Akihiko watched the cavalcade quickly breakup and Tsuna landed painfully onto the ground. Then Team B+C rushed forward to attack Tsuna.

But wait isn't the whole point of the event was about Pole Knocking. What in the world are they doing attacking someone who isn't even on a pole.

Noticing the incoming enemies, Gokudera pulled out his infamous dynamites and threw them at the group, causing a series of explosion as the Dynamites went off one after another. Akihiko watched on with dumbfounded expression as the teams broke out into an all out fight.

And Hibari? Wait, he was in the center of that fight. Akihiko sighed. "Someone is having fun," he thought. It is not exactly fun if Hibari was to say something. It was more like biting some herbivores for disrupting the peace and crowding rather than "fun".

"Someone goes call the committee," Akihiko muttered with a hand over his face, completely speechless at the sight. "They must be stopped before the school ground gets any more damage…" He clarified when the girls looked at him questionably.

And thus the Event ended with no result. That concluded this year Athletic Festival.

* * *

When they had finally settled down, Akihiko dragged Tsuna, Ryohei, Gokudera, and Yamamoto into the infirmary. As he rummaged around for the first aid kit, he had on this look that said, "Stay still and be quite, or I'll smack you."

"Aki-"Ryohei started but Akihiko glared at him to make him shut up. He then proceeds to apply basic first aid to everyone's injuries from the previous event.

Then when he reached to Tsuna, he brought his hand up to Tsuna's forehead.

"Hm, just as I thought. You got a cold," Akihiko muttered.

"Eh! What? Tsuna why didn't you tell us!" Yamamoto exclaimed.

"A-ah,"

"Juudaime, I have failed you!" Gokudera wailed as he dramatically bowed his head.

"N-no, Gokudera!" Tsuna is pretty flustered now.

"Sorry, I forgot to wear my mask!" Tsuna mumbled. (It is courtesy in Japan to wear surgical mask when you have a cold as to prevent spreading your germs to others)

"It's ok, Sawada, I don't get sick that easily!" Ryohei declared proudly.

"Idiots don't get sick." Gokudera nodded his head, as if everything suddenly made sense to him.

"What's that Octopus-head!" Ryohei bellowed.

"What do you want, Turf-top!" Gokudera retorted.

"Maa, calm down." Yamamoto tried to calm them down.

While they were too busying arguing, Akihiko had gone to the corner of the infirmary and did something. He came back with a cup of something. "Here," he offered to Tsuna.

"Mizumoto-senpai, w-what-?" Tsuna started but the cup shoved to his face shut him up.

"Ginger Tea." Akihiko replied.

Tsuna awkwardly accepted the tea and sipped on it quietly.

"Oi fan-freak, what are you trying to do?! Don't try to get close to Juudaime when I'm here!" Gokudera raged.

"What did you call him!?" Ryohei scowled.

"What, you got a problem, Turf-top!?" Gokudera said.

"Maa maa, calm down guys, it is his way of showing affection!" Yamamoto interjected, laughing brightly. "Ne, Gokudera?" and put an arm around Gokudera's shoulder.

"Get your hands off me, you baseball-idiot!" Gokudera yelled, frantically tried to get Yamamoto's hands off.

"See, I got one too" Yamamoto chirped.

Ryohei seemed to calm down and said, "Ah I see. So does that mean he likes all of us?"

At this point Gokudera reached his boiling point as his face flushed with anger or embarrassment. Akihiko had on this thoughtful expression as if considering the possibility of that statement and completely ignoring Gokudera's state.

Then suddenly someone's laughter interrupted their musing. Tsuna was laughing so hard on the bed that it looked like he's choking. And Gokudera, being himself, failed to notice that his Juudaime is choking from laughter and took it the wrong way.

"Juudaime, an assassination? Could this be the enemies' new techniques!" Gokudera spoke.

"N-no, G-Gokudera, I'm laughing so hard" Tsuna wheezed, "that it's getting hard to speak." He wheezed some more.

Gokudera let out a sigh of relief while Yamamoto was laughing along side with Tsuna.

Behind them, Ryohei and Akihiko stood side by side. The two seniors looked at the scene with a smile.

"It's nice." Akihiko muttered after awhile.

"Yeah Aki," Ryohei replied, never taking his eyes off the underclassmen. The group felt they were a little bit closer that day. And from an outsider standpoint, it painted a heart-warming scene.

From afar, Reborn watched with a smile on his face.

"Tsuna, your job as a Boss is just starting."

- To be continued -

* * *

**AN: Review are Loved! and regarding KuroYuki34's questions: I'll describe him in future chapter. And yea, that's what he looks like.  
**

**animefan20000: Hm, don't worry, I'm not dropping this story. Recently, I find myself a little bit fond of Akihiko. So I'll keep writing. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC, Mizumoto Akihiko.  
**

**AN: I'm trying to increase my word counts for each chapter. Seems like only a couple chapter left until I can transition into the Kokuyo Arc. As mentioned in previous chapter, I've included a description of Akihiko in the middle of this chapter. It was fun writing certain part of this chapter! Hope you like it!  
**

* * *

For a while, everything was pretty peaceful around Namimori. At least it is peaceful in Akihiko's point of view. Tsuna along with Gokudera and Yamamoto, on the other hand, underwent hell training from his sadistic tutor, Reborn.

First they went to the mountain for some rigorous training that involves giant turtle that grow when come in contact with water. But then somehow on their way, got lost in the mountain and unknowingly started a forest fire. Fortunately with Tsuna's help, they doused the fire with the land natural water. But then that weren't really the important part. Tsuna was hospitalized due to that hell training.

News reached pretty fast to Akihiko and Ryohei's ears.

"What! Tsuna is hospitalized?!" Ryohei shouted to the extreme.

"Onii-chan, you mean you didn't know!?" Kyoko scolded lightly. "Haru-chan told me and together, along with I-pin and Reborn, we went to visit him and did an exorcism, though we ended up not doing it since Tsuna said he was fine." That last part was more of a mumbled than actually spoken aloud. It seemed like she was really sad that she didn't get to do some exorcism.

"Exorcism?" Ryohei asked. Apparently that's the only part that caught his attention.

"I-pin?" Akihiko inquired from next to Ryohei.

"Oh, yes. I-pin is this cute kid that knows kung-fu!" Kyoko chirped. "She's so adorable!" She squealed completely ignored her brother's question.

"Yosh, we must go visit him to the extreme!" Ryohei declared and Akihiko nodded in agreement.

"I'll see you tonight Kyoko!" Ryohei said his goodbye and dragged Akihiko along the way to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Ryohei asked the nurse behind the counter.

"Excuse us, but which room is Tsuna located to the extreme!" He shouted.

The nurse threw him a disapproving look and motioned them to quite them while she looked up Tsuna's name. Then suddenly she seemed to be in a state of shock as she looked at the computer screen. Because it stated on there that Tsuna's roommate is none other than Hibari Kyoya.

She glanced at the clock; it read twelve o'clock.

"Sorry, but you cannot visit him at this moment." The nurses told them shakily. She is not such a fool as to allowed visitor into the room where the Hibari is currently napping.

"What, why not?" Ryohei exclaimed, confusion written all over his face. He glanced at the clock and then continued, "It's still visiting hour, so why can't we go visit him to the extreme?"

Akihiko quirked an eyebrow in puzzlement and nodded his head at Ryohei's question.

The nurse looked at the two of them and then after a moment, she glanced around as if to make sure no one is eavesdropping. She said in a hush tone, "It's for your safety. The Hibari is napping in that room. It would just be your doom day if you happened to wake him up at this hour." She warned.

Ryohei and Akihiko exchanged a look and Akihiko smiled softly.

"Thank you for your concern." He nodded lightly at the nurse and smiled.

"But we will be fine to the extreme!" Ryohei finished Akihiko statement with a loud declaration.

"W-what, youngster nowadays," she mumbled. "Fine if you want to die that bad, feel free to go there. They are in the room in the far right of the fifth floor." She scowled. Then as Akihiko and Ryohei left, she hollered, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

When the duo reached the room, they were met with a comical sight. Tsuna was trying to persuade Lambo to not let go of the grenade. Off to the side, a kid in Chinese clothing was staring at Tsuna. And then in the corner of the room somewhere, a pile of bloodied bodies lay there like a work of art.

After a minute or two, Tsuna finally noticed Ryohei and Akihiko. "Senpai!" He exclaimed in a hushed tone as not to wake the sleeping Hibari.

"Shh!" Ryohei shushed Tsuna. Quite ironically the loudest person of the group is doing the shushing.

They both went over to Tsuna, who is now sitting on the bed with Lambo smiling happily in his hand.

"Sawada, Lambo," Akihiko greeted softly.

"Hi, mystery guy!" Lambo responded. Now that Akihiko thought about it, he never gave Lambo his name.

"Mizumoto Akihiko." He introduced and softly patted Lambo head.

"Sawada, greeting to the extreme!" Ryohei smiled.

"Senpai, not so loud!" Tsuna replied while trying to hold on to the now squirming Lambo.

"Oh, this must be I-pin to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted quietly, and gestured toward the kid.

"Yeah," Tsuna replied.

Akihiko approached the little kid and said, "I-pin?" He crouched down so that he's the same level as I-pin.

The girl turned around upon hearing her name. "Ni hao!" She greeted in Chinese.

"Ni hao?" Akihiko mimic, despite not knowing the language. He assumed it must be a form of greeting.

They stared at each for awhile until I-pin pointed at herself and chirped, "I-pin!"

Akihiko nodded and mimic her once again. Pointing at himself he said, "Mizumoto Akihiko."

"Mi-"I-pin tried to say the name. But after several attempt she just pointed at Akihiko and said, "Mimi!"

Everything seemed to freeze in place. Then suddenly Tsuna coughed lightly to disguise his laugh, horribly. Ryohei on the other hand, just guffawed loudly. But then he seemed to remember about Hibari and choked on his saliva. Lambo, being the youngest, laughed aloud and joined in the fun. He pointed at Akihiko and said, "Mimi! You are Mimi!" He was quickly shushed by Tsuna, who doesn't want to wake up Hibari.

Akihiko blinked at her and shook his head, "Mi-zu-mo-to" He corrected gently.

I-pin also shook her head and repeated herself, more adamantly, "Mimi!"

"No, Mi-zu-mo-to." He tried again, a little bit forceful.

"No, Mimi!" I-pin shouted. "Mimi!"

Gradually their little "conversation" increased in volume and Tsuna paled as he glanced nervously at Hibari.

"Hieee!" he mentally shrieked. "Guys, calm down!" He said, trying to calm them down. But they didn't seem to hear him.

Ryohei grinned and wrapped both his arm around I-pin and Akihiko to gain their attention. He lifted I-Pin up with one hand and dragged Akihiko up with the other. "Shh, both of you be quite to the extreme!"

Akihiko cheeks tinted pink in embarrassment. "Sorry."

A minute later, Akihiko suddenly found himself sitting on one of the chair beside Tsuna's bed with I-pin on his lap and Ryohei stood behind him, while holding onto a sleeping Lambo.

Earlier, when Lambo fell asleep in Tsuna's arms, Ryohei claimed that an injured person shouldn't use too much energy and took Lambo from him.

"Thank you, senpai, for visiting." Tsuna said. In the inside, he was beaming with happiness. As of several months ago, he wouldn't have had this many people visiting him if he was hospitalized. He has Reborn to thank for that.

"It was nothing. How are you doing?" Akihiko commented.

"Oh, I'm doing great, I'm pretty sure I'll recover before New Year start!" Tsuna laughed weakly.

"Sawada, join the boxing club to the extreme when you recovered!" Ryohei declared, suddenly forgot about Hibari.

"Ryohei," Akihiko reminded him and Ryohei quickly shut up.

"Sorry, Sawada, we didn't bring any get-well gift." Ryohei commented after a while.

"Ah, no, it's ok. I'm really happy that you visit, senpai," Tsuna smiled sincerely.

Akihiko suddenly coughed lightly to catch everyone attention. He fished out a book from the inside of his jacket and gave it to Tsuna. He gave Ryohei a grin as if saying, "It seems like you are the only one without gift."

The book title read, "_Genji Monogatari_" (_The Tale of Genji_) And when Tsuna flipped open the book there is a note on the first page.

The note said: "It's such an interesting book. I hope you'll find a love for classic literature. –Mizumoto Akihiko."

Tsuna stared dumbly at the book while his mind was thinking, "Mizumoto-senpai, I don't even understand what we are reading in class… how I could even understand this…?"

Akihiko mistook Tsuna's silence for something positive. He smiled softly and said, "I'm glad you like it."

"Eh? Ah, Uh, I mean, Thank you." Tsuna smiled nervously. At this, Akihiko's smiled grew even wider, very satisfied with himself for picking such nice gift.

"What, no fair to the extreme! Why didn't you tell me, Aki?" Ryohei whined. But then suddenly, he seemed to remember something and search through his sport bag. Since he needed both hands to search for the bag, he had transferred the sleeping Lambo onto Akihiko's hands.

"Aha! Found it!" Ryohei exclaimed in glee. He held on his hand a book that said, "_Guide to Beginning Boxing!_"

"Here, Sawada, this will help you grow stronger!" Ryohei grinned happily and shoved the book into Tsuna's hands. "You can start studying the basic to the extreme. So that when you recovered, we can have a nice extreme spar!" He said, excitedly and with great passion.

"Ano, Thank you, but I'm not joining the boxing club, Sasagawa-senpai." Tsuna just looked at him funnily but Ryohei, who is now in a virtual world where he is sparring passionately with Tsuna, ignored him.

Still lost in his virtual reality, Ryohei shouted, "Extreme Uppercut!"

"Hieee! Sasagawa-senpai!" Tsuna shrieked in horror. "Are you trying to get me killed?"

Ryohei, Akihiko, and Tsuna suddenly froze when they all felt a familiar aura. They turned around and saw Hibari, who now has his eyes wide open and staring at them impassively.

"Ryohei…" Akihiko muttered.

"Uh, yea, Aki…" Ryohei responded nervously.

"Hieee! Hibari-san, I can explain!" Tsuna started.

I-pin, who had been quite for awhile, suddenly started to act strangely. Akihiko looked at her forehead and saw some nine weird dots.

"Sawada." Akihiko started.

"Not now, Mizumoto-senpai…" Tsuna responded not even bother looking at Akihiko. He, along with Ryohei, was too busy trying to calm the advancing Hibari.

The countdown started. There were five dots left.

"Sawada!" Akihiko shouted, more forceful this time.

"Wha-, Hieee!" He shrieked in his usual high pitch voice. "Pinzu timed super explosion! Could it be I-pin is in love with Hibari!"

"Eh, in love?" Ryohei exclaimed.

"Explosion!?" Akihiko questioned.

The countdown is not at three. In front of them there was an advancing Hibari. Behind them, there was a bomb. How exciting. Acting swiftly, Tsuna dove for I-pin, opened the window and threw I-pin outward just as she exploded.

"Phew," Tsuna wiped the sweat on his forehead.

"Explosion to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted.

One problem solved, though the remaining problem seemed to be a lot more troublesome.

"Herbivores, you woke me up. I'll bite you all to death!" Hibari smirked and raised his tonfa.

"Yosh! Sparring to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed excitedly and fished out his boxing gloves from the sport bag.

Behind him, Akihiko stood up and gave the sleeping Lambo to Tsuna. He then pulled out a steel fan from one of the hidden pockets on his jacket.

"Hibari, Ryohei" Akihiko said and give both Hibari and Ryohei a look. This translate to, "It's been a while since our last bonding activities. I wish to join in this spar as well."

"Ho, interesting." Hibari's smirk widened as he readied his tonfas.

"This should be fun to the extreme!" Ryohei bellowed and got into a stance.

Without waiting for a signal, Hibari rushed forward, aiming a tonfa at Ryohei's head. Using his reflex, Ryohei stepped slightly back, causing the Tonfa to barely graze the tip of Ryohei's nose. Ryohei quickly moved forward after the strike and aim several jabs at Hibari, to hopefully penetrate his defense.

"Extreme Rush!" Ryohei shouted the name of his move.

Hibari smirked, and break off Ryohei's relentless jab with a well timed spin of the tonfa. He then kicked Ryohei back with his foot and prepared to move forward.

When Hibari was about to lunge forward to continue his combo, Akihiko intercepted with a swipe of a fan.

Now then one must wondered, why didn't Akihiko just strike from the back while Ryohei is attacking the front? Wouldn't that have been a more effective strategy? If you had said that to Akihiko, he would glare at you and say, "That is dishonorable. Please don't talk to me again." Akihiko would never do that in a friendly spar. And he doubt it would have worked on Hibari anyway.

Using the momentum from the swipe, Akihiko spun and did a kick that aimed for Hibari's head. With one hand, Hibari blocked that kick easily and moved forward, attacking with a lot more ferocity than before. Akihiko ducked and spun out of harm. The he slid his feet toward Hibari and fell slightly forward. Follow up with the momentum, Akihiko swiped the fan in an upper crescent shape to hopefully knocked Hibari off balance. Block! The twin tonfa crossed and stopped Akihiko's fan from proceeding any further.

Then from behind Akihiko, Ryohei rushed forward and threw a powerful cross. Akihiko ducked just in time for the punch to go directly at Hibari's face. Smirking in excitement, Hibari broke the crossed tonfas' position and swung them upward, redirecting the incoming punch to hit the area above Hibari head instead.

Then what happened next went by in a blur. Where Akihiko would swing his fan, Ryohei would duck so that the strike would go straight at Hibari. Then when Hibari would strike Akihiko, Ryohei would guard with his boxing gloves to reduce damage received.

After awhile, Tsuna, who was watching from the side, started to notice something strange about the fight. Ryohei attacks are fast and broad, whereas Akihiko's strikes are short and graceful. For some reason, it reminds Tsuna oddly of the sun and the moon, when the sun set, the moon would rise and vice versa. Occasionally, Ryohei would move in front of Akihiko as to block Hibari's view of Akihiko. Just like the many different phrases of the moon, shining only when the moon reflects the sun. Akihiko is like the moon that shines whenever the sun, Ryohei, permits. His attacks faded in and out and seemed random, but strangely effective. Akihiko would strike seemingly random swipes but actually helped Ryohei go into an ideal position for his next move.

Suddenly, Ryohei was in front of Akihiko again. Instead of moving away for Akihiko to strike, he pulled his hand back and execute a cross punch. With inhuman grace Akihiko jumped from behind Ryohei and used Ryohei's shoulder as steps, he vault high into the air and delivered a strike targeted at Hibari's head. Hibari eyes widened slightly as he prepared to defend against this combination. With Akihiko attacking from above and Ryohei attacking on ground, Hibari was left with two options—move back or take the hit.

In the end he chose to move back. But Akihiko and Ryohei didn't just stop there. Ryohei followed up with another quick jab, which Akihiko used Ryohei's jab as another step and propelled upward once more.

"Senpai, amazing…" Tsuna watched in awe at the battle in front of him. Amazed at the grace and synchronization that Akihiko and Ryohei currently displayed.

Even more amazing was Hibari Kyoya, who held his ground against the two. Like the cloud that completely covered the sun and the moon, Hibari quickly broke through their formation and struck a blow that intended to push Ryohei off to the side rather than hurt him. Without Ryohei's jabs for Akihiko to use as step, he had no choice but to land on the ground. With Ryohei off to the side, the path to Akihiko was wide opened. Grinning like a mad man, Hibari dashed up to Akihiko range and smacked him across the room. Without stopping, Hibari spun around and smack the approaching Ryohei off to the opposite side of the room. Both Ryohei and Akihiko skidded back from the force and smacked against the wall. They fell over when the momentum from the strike was used up. Regardless of how bright the sun or the moon shines, once the cloud loomed over them, they can no longer be seen.

"Hieee, Senpai!" Tsuna wailed.

"Get up, herbivores." Hibari commanded.

"Ha, Hibari, that was one extreme hit!" Ryohei shouted as he recovered from the strike.

"Hm," Akihiko merely grunted as he stood up.

Then without warning, both Ryohei and Akihiko dashed toward Hibari in sync. The fight broke out in much more grace and intensity than before.

From afar, Tsuna thought he saw that Ryohei, Akihiko, Hibari have on a grin, a smile, and a smirk, respectively. They looked as if they were having fun. But then Tsuna glanced around and shrieked again. They had completely destroyed the hospital room! Lambo had long disappeared to who knows where and Tsuna was left alone in a room with people who were destroying stuff like no one cares.

"S-senpai, stop! You are destroying the room!" Tsuna wailed, but the three ignored him.

"Senpai!"He tried again. He received no response from them.

"Onii-san!" He shouted.

This got Ryohei's attention and Hibari used this distraction to aim for him. But Akihiko intercept that strike quickly.

"Sawada, what did you just call me?" Ryohei asked, confused.

Tsuna looked sheepish and muttered, "Sorry, it's just slip…"

"No, it's ok to the extreme!" Ryohei grinned happily. "Did you stop me just because of that? You can call me Onii-san. I don't mind!" He shouted happily and rushed back into battle.

"Ano, that's not why I stopped you…" But no one heard him.

Reborn suddenly appeared from beside Tsuna and smirked. "Dame-Tsuna, you should keep your subordinates in line."

"Hieee! They are my senpai, not subordinates!" Tsuna shook his head frantically.

Smirking sadistically, Reborn glanced at Tsuna and said, "Pathetic, then you should die." Reborn shot Tsuna with a Dying Will bullet.

As he fell in slow motion, the voice in his head echoed, "I regret. I regret not stopping them from destroying the hospital. REBORN! STOP THEM WITH MY DYING WILL!"

His clothes burst into flame, leaving him with his boxer. He charged bravely into the fight.

"RAWR!" He bellowed and smacked all three of them in the head—with a slipper.

"Extreme, Sawada! You are as passionate as ever!" Ryohei exclaimed with excitement.

Akihiko chuckled lightly and Hibari just look indifferent, though he sense a great feeling of déjà vu washed over him, as if this is very familiar. Then he remembered and looked around, trying to locate the baby. But to no avail, he only saw a broken Hospital room. Clearly dissatisfied, he chose to bite these Herbivores as a way to let out his frustration.

"I'll bite you to death!" He growled.

With that magic word, the whole battle resume from where they were left off. Ryohei and Akihiko seemed to regain their strength and fight a lot harder than before. With Tsuna unrefined way of fighting, the destruction of the room becomes triple. But no one really pay attention to those insignificant details. What's important right now is the angry Skylark, who looked as if he would devour the Tuna Fish and two others.

An animalistic punch came from Tsuna, aiming at Hibari, who dodged without blinking. The punch connected with the innocent Hospital bed. Crack! The bed exploded from the force.

"Sawada, great punch to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted happily.

Just then, the head nurse came into the room after hearing all the complaints from the neighboring patients. One looked at the scene caused her gave out an inhuman shriek. She saw in front of, four bloodied teenagers. Correction, two bloodied teenagers, one half-naked and the last one remained unharmed.

"What are you doing, Hibari-san, Sawada-san and you unknown children!?" She raged.

They turned around and looked at her, causing her to flinch back. The pictures the four painted looked dangerous and unapproachable.

"R-regardless, Hibari-san, please continue resting. Sawada, what were you thinking, brining explosive into the hospital? And YOU two," She growled at Ryohei and Akihiko. "You are now on the hospital black list!"

"Eh? Why to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed, confused.

Akihiko scratched his cheek lightly and looked away, cheeks slightly pink.

Hibari snorted and both Ryohei and Akihiko turned to him. Their eyes lock and a silent message passed through them, "Ignore her. I'll handle this later." They nodded in respond.

By the end of the day, Tsuna was transferred to a suspicious looking room, where he thought he could enjoy peace at last. But unfortunately, that cannot be as he turned around and saw a tube with floating skulls. He wailed fearfully. But no one came to answer him. Thus, Tsuna spend the rest of his hospital stay in fright.

* * *

Several weeks have passed since then and the local streets were devoid of people, yet strangely festive. Then from one of the houses, a young man stepped down onto the street. He looked to be around in his early teen. He is fairly tall for his age, estimated to be around five feet and five inches tall—average when compared to his friends. He wore a pale grey Haori completed with white Haori-fastener. The back of the Haori proudly displayed the family crest—the Wings of the Swallowtail Butterfly Crest. Underneath the Haori were black kimono and hakama. His angular face wore a perfectly emotionless face. His eyebrows are slightly thick that accentuated his deep brown eyes. His lips are gentle looking and well defined. A tiny smile adorned his face as he made his way down the street.

With each step he took, his short, black hair swayed gently in the early spring breeze. He held on his hand a highly intricate fan, crafted by none other than himself.

This is Mizumoto Akihiko in his New Year attire. He had received an invitation earlier from the Sawada household to join them on their New Year activities. Along the way, he saw Kyoko and Ryohei and called out to them.

"Happy New Year (to the extreme), Akihiko(-senpai)!" Ryohei shouted and Kyoko greeted.

"Happy New Year, Ryohei, Kyoko." Akihiko replied with a nod.

"Sawada invited us over for their New Year activities," Ryohei said.

"Me too," Akihiko responded gently.

"Oh, then let's get going!" Kyoko smiled.

The walk to the Sawada household was quite but peaceful. The Sasagawa siblings are both used to the quietness of Akihiko. Eventually they arrived at Tsuna's house with both Yamamoto and Gokudera already there. Haru was there too.

A series of "Happy New Year" was exchanged.

"Thank you for the invitation!" Ryohei shouted to Tsuna and Reborn.

"Eh? Invitation?" Tsuna was confused by Ryohei's statement. He concluded that it must be one of Reborn's games and turned around to look questionably at him.

"Today is the 'Family Versus' Battle in Vongola style. Oh look, your opponents are here too." Reborn noted the approaching group of people wearing black. A person with blond hair stood out from the group.

"Dino-san!?" Tsuna exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, Tsuna, we came to play 'Family Versus' Battle in Vongola style." The person dubbed Dino replied. Then noticed the other people and greeted them. "Oh, this is my first time seeing some of you. Nice to meet you!" He gave a friendly smile.

Akihiko and Kyoko gave a polite bow. "Nice to meet you too," They said.

And Ryohei merely shouted, "Yo!"

Akihiko gave him a glance of disapproval. Ryohei laughed nervously, "I mean nice to meet you too!" he corrected himself, sneaking a glance at Akihiko. He was met with a warm smile as if saying, "You should be polite to stranger."

But then one thing still seemed unclear to Tsuna's group. What exactly is "Family Versus" Battle in Vongola style?

"Reborn, what exactly is this Vongola style thing?" He voiced the question that was in most people head.

"New Year's 'Family Versus' Battle in Vongola style is a battle between allied families to show their enthusiasms over New Year. It is a tradition that begins the year." Reborn explained. "Each family will participate in a New Year themed event and will receive points. In the end, whoever has the most point will win. The winner is awarded a generous price."

"Oh so it's a just a game this time." Tsuna sighed in relief.

Reborn continued in a straight face, "The loser, on the other hand, will be fined one million yens."

"EH!" Tsuna shrieked.

Reborn suddenly grinned, "It can't be helped. Rules are rules."

Tsuna's friends didn't seem to mind that much. Instead they were all dreaming about the one million yens price. It would sure be nice to get one million yen for New Year.

"Haha, Tsuna, it's a just a game. No need to get so work up over it," Yamamoto laughed lightly.

"It seems fun!" Haru chirped and Kyoko smiled along with her.

"One million yens," Akihiko smiled gently. "That would be nice," He spoke softly, lost in dreamland.

"Haha, Mizumoto-senpai, you want that one million yens too huh?" Yamamoto teased and put a hand over Akihiko's shoulder.

Akihiko's cheek tinted pink. "A man can dream." He coughed lightly and looked away.

"Extreme! This is one extreme game!" Ryohei shouted passionately.

But then Gokudera just had to go be the killjoy.

"Wait a minute, Reborn-san. Why are the outsiders participating the 'Family Versus' Battle?" He jabbed a finger in Ryohei's direction.

Reborn explained, "At the moment, Tsuna's family is considerably smaller than the Cavallone. Due to this circumstance, Tsuna's acquaintances will also be considered as Family.

Ryohei smirked in triumph and pointed at himself. "Meaning I'll also be in the Mongolia Family."He said with great confident.

Akihiko coughed lightly. "Vongola." He corrected.

"It's Vongola lawn-head!" Gokudera bellowed.

"What's that, Octopus-head!?" Ryohei growled.

"You shouldn't argue in New Year. Misfortune will follow." Akihiko commented lightly from the side.

Both Ryohei and Gokudera froze in shock as they registered in what Akihiko's said.

Eventually, they moved to the area by the river due to the fact that Tsuna's room was too small for the event. Reborn sat proudly on a stool he produced out of nowhere. He announced, "I'll be the judge!"

"No grudges held, regardless of who win, Tsuna," Dino smiled as Tsuna shrieked.

Ignoring Tsuna, Reborn announced. "The first round will be fortune drawing."

"EH! How are you going to score then?" Tsuna wailed.

"Simple, Great Fortune is 2 points, Small Fortune is 1 point, normal is 0 point, Small Misfortune is -1 point and Great Misfortune is -2 points." Reborn grinned as he produced a Fortune Box out of thin air.

When Tsuna was contemplating over who he should choose for this event, Ryohei proudly volunteered himself. "Leave this to me!" He exclaimed.

"I don't believe in Fortune." He paused for dramatic effect. "Because I decided my own FATE!" He shouted as he reached into the box.

"This is how I do it to the extreme!" He declared with a fistful of fortune notes. "With this, we'll take the lead in one shot!" He seemed confident of himself.

Everyone was shocked with Ryohei's action. From beside Yamamoto, Akihiko sighed lightly.

"What's wrong, Mizumoto-senpai? You don't seem that confident." Yamamoto asked.

Akihiko smiled lightly and repeated what he said earlier to Gokudera and Ryohei, "Argue. Misfortune."

"Haha, senpai, that's just an old superstition right?" Yamamoto laughed; not believing in what Akihiko's said. But then Reborn started to read aloud Ryohei's fortune.

"Great Misfortune, Great Misfortune, Great Misfortune…." The list went on for quite a while.

Yamamoto paled lightly as Akihiko looked at him, an eyebrow quirked, as if saying, "Told you."

"Negative seventeen points!" Reborn announced.

Then Dino's man stepped up and drew a simple slip. It read, "Small Fortune"

"1 versus -17!" Reborn announced

"EH!" Tsuna, Yamamoto and Haru exclaimed in shocked.

Ryohei walked back to the group, dejected. He was met by an emotionless look from Akihiko's face and Gokudera yelling at his ear, "What were you doing!" he growled.

He simply ignored Gokudera and instead whined, "Aw, come on. It has nothing to do with arguing!"

Akihiko continued to stare at him emotionlessly, though Ryohei swore he saw a slight curve at the tip of Akihiko's lips.

"Aki, stop with that look to the extreme!" Ryohei pouted and pinched Akihiko's cheeks to force him to smile or do something other than looking emotionless.

At first Akihiko tolerated Ryohei's pinching but then it started to hurt. Thus, Akihiko smacked against Ryohei's head. "Stop that," he said and caressed his red cheek—red from the pinch.

From the side, Yamamoto, Kyoko and Haru laughed lightly.

Reborn announced the next activities, "Feather ball! Winner gets 20 points!"

Tsuna seemed excited and looked hopeful. "If we win this round then we'll be in the lead! If it comes to sport then Yamamoto would be the best suited. Yamamoto, we're counting on you!"

"Oi, baseball Idiot, you better win!" Gokudera shouted.

Was that supposed to be word of encouragement? Akihiko wondered as he shook his head and chose to enjoy watching the match instead.

The match between Yamamoto and the opposing team was interesting. It was intense and both players have fairly good forms. Then suddenly, the opposing shouted, "Ha, Chance Ball!" and smashed the incoming feather ball straight at Yamamoto.

"Oh no, Yamamoto!" Tsuna wailed.

"So what," Yamamoto looked serious as he corrected his form and smashed the ball back aggressively.

"Beautiful," Akihiko muttered, referring to the graceful movement Yamamoto have when he returned that smash.

"Eh, Yamamoto is beautiful?" Haru shouted with wide eyes from beside Akihiko, mistaken the comment for something completely inappropriate.

"What!" Kyoko and gasped in shock and turned around to look at Akihiko. Their eyes gleam with a suspicious look.

"I see nothing wrong with that!" Ryohei shouted in respond, completely oblivious to Haru's implication.

Akihiko's right eyebrow twitched with uncontrollable rage at the accusation. "His form is beautiful, idiots." He mumbled.

"Yeah, what do you think he was talking about?" Ryohei looked at the other with great puzzlement.

"N-nothing," Haru said quickly, her face red from embarrassment.

"Ah, he lost" Akihiko commented causing the rest to look back at Yamamoto, only to see the twinkling light of the disappearing feather Ball.

"Out!" Reborn announced.

"Haha, sorry Tsuna." Yamamoto rubbed his head sheepishly.

"It's 21 versus -17" Reborn stated then grinned at Tsuna, "at this rate, you are going to have to pay 1 million yen."

"Next round, Uta-Garuta" (basically a card game that players have to match the last two lines of a poem to the first three lines)

"Ah, literature, Mizumoto-senpai is the most ideal!" Tsuna muttered to himself.

"Oh! It's Haru strong point!" Haru grinned confidently. "Let Haru do it, Tsuna-darling!"

Akihiko was slightly impressed with Haru. Not that many younger people nowadays like to read poems.

"Uh…I was thinking of Mizumoto-senpai." Tsuna said.

"Mou, Haru can do it!" She pouted.

"Go." Akihiko smiled and nudged her gently. He was interested in seeing the girl's ability.

Tsuna seemed reluctant but nonetheless, agreed.

Haru marched proudly onto the play area and sat the traditional seiza (kneeling). She stared into the opponent's eyes, challenging him.

"Begin!" Reborn announced.

Haru was quite good. She was doing fine until her legs gave out. "Hahi! Haru gave up, Haru's feet are numb!" She cried.

Nevertheless, her effort gained the team: two points… While her knowledge of the poems clearly impressed Akihiko, her inability to sit in seiza for an extended period of time causes Akihiko to lose that respect for her.

"Sorry, Tsuna-darling." Haru apologized.

"N-no, you did your best." Tsuna replied.

The next few activities passed by in a blur. Lambo was selected for the Face Puzzle. Actually, he sort of forced his way onto the game. Reborn had people set up a play area for this activity. While Tsuna was too busy debating on who to pick for this event, Lambo had already taken a spot on the play area. Without waiting for Tsuna, Reborn had already started the event.

Tsuna quickly paled and stared at Lambo, speechless. "Ah, you are doing it wrong!" He wailed, becoming fearful of his fate if his team keep on losing.

Akihiko was looking at Lambo with great interest. Instead of putting the pieces of the face onto the paper, he put them all over his face instead. "That is an interesting way of playing." Akihiko commented.

"Haha, that's the incorrect way of playing, senpai." Yamamoto laughed cheerfully.

"I'm done!" Lambo declared cheerfully.

"Lambo lost!" Reborn announced and kicked Lambo away.

"Hieee, no way!" Tsuna cried.

Then I-pin also lost in her event with kite-flying. She was so adamant about flying kite because it seemed pretty fun. So when a giant gust blew through, the kite flew even higher and lifted I-pin up. However, she refused to let go of the string, determined to win this challenge.

"EH, I-pin, let go of the kite!" The rest shouted at the flying I-pin.

Last but not least, Gokudera was picked for a board game. Everything was fine until he landed on a spot that said, "Compliment a family member."

A horrified expression flew through Gokudera's face. He seemed to be frozen in shock. He turned to Yamamoto reluctantly.

"Y-Yamamoto, y-you a—are s-such an a-a-a-amazin- UGH! I can't do it!" He grunted in defeat. "Sorry, Juudaime!"

"Eh…" Tsuna looked really depressed. A gray cloud loomed over his head as he mumbled, "It's over. It's over…"

"Hmm, the point gap is so wide now…" Yamamoto furrowed his eyebrows.

"Ah! What am I going to do now?!" Tsuna started to pull his hair in frustration. If it weren't for the predicament they were in, the sight would have been rather comical.

Feeling bad for Tsuna, Dino said, "Come to think of it, it seems kind of unfair doesn't it?"

Tsuna stopped whatever he was doing to listen attentively to Dino.

"Well it's adult versus kids, after all. I'll give them a handicap." Dino grinned but he totally wasn't expecting Reborn's answer.

"Hm, you got a point there. Let's just say the points from earlier don't count." Reborn declared.

"Hey!"Dino whined, while Tsuna exclaimed in shock. "No way!"

"It's too troublesome. So let's just say, whoever win the next activity will win the Battle. The loser will have to dish out one million yen."

"It can't be help." Dino shook his head but nevertheless agreed to the condition.

Tsuna's team seemed to regain their spirit. "We can win this, Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted enthusiastically.

"Well then, the next event will be Rice Cake. You have two hours, ready, begin!" Reborn started the match.

"Ho, chance." Akihiko smirked lightly, eyes gleaming with anticipation. "That one million yen is as good as ours," He grinned.

"Eh? But they might win." Tsuna stated but then he looked at Dino's teams, who have absolutely no idea how to make rice cake. "Yea, we can win this!"

Producing random fans out of nowhere, Ryohei and Akihiko cheered the team on, as Gokudera and Yamamoto worked hard pounding the dough. Since only two people are needed for the pounding—one to pound, and the other to flip the cake—having too many people pounding would be dangerous for the one flipping the cake, as they ran the risk of getting their hand squished by the hammer.

The girls, on the other hand, were working hard at making the red bean paste to be used as filling for the rice cake. Though halfway through, Bianchi joined in as well. But Tsuna and the other was too busy pounding cake to notice the new arrival. Had they realized earlier, they wouldn't have let Bianchi participate in this round.

The time had finally come for them to present their final product. Tsuna and friends were extremely excited.

"Time's up, bring the cake over so I can taste it." Reborn ordered. "Let's start with the Cavallone."

Dino group came over but they were a little bit embarrassed. "We tried to make it. But with our knowledge, this is the best we can do."

Reborn took a bite and commented harshly. "It tastes bad and is falling apart.

Tsuna did a little mental cheer as he presented their team's rice cake to reborn.

Akihiko, Ryohei, Yamamoto was grinning excitedly. But then they suddenly noticed that Gokudera was not with them and instead, had fainted on the ground.

"Oi, Gokudera, are you ok?" Yamamoto asked.

"Nee-san" He choked.

Then they looked over and saw Bianchi in her beautiful kimono. As Tsuna flipped over the box, he exclaimed in shock, "Poison Cooking!"

"I joined halfway through," She smiled.

"EHHHH! We are going to lose!" Tsuna wailed in despair, implying that there is no way Reborn would eat that poisoned rice cake.

"Nonsense, with strong love, the poison will be neutralized and Reborn will taste the delicious love-filled rice cake." Bianchi took the container of rice cake from Tsuna's hand and brought it over to Reborn. "Here, Reborn."

Both Tsuna and Dino was shocked that Reborn would actually eat it. Then suddenly, three giant bubbles sprung forth from Reborn's nose, indicating that he had fallen into a deep sleep. Bianchi looked at the sleeping Reborn and sighed. "It can't be helped. You guys try it." She said and offered Tsuna and Dino the poisoned rice cake. But none of them wanted it and began to run away. Bianchi was not going to let that happen as she quickly followed them.

"Here, help yourselves," She called to the running boys.

"Hieee, I don't want it!" Tsuna cried.

"Go away!" Dino screamed as both of them disappeared below the horizon.

The rest of the people laughed quietly at the comical sight. The winner of the battle cannot beside due to the fact that the judge was sleeping and that both bosses of the family ran away. Eventually they came back and everyone left the playing field while exchanging words of parting.

Akihiko, Ryohei and Kyoko walked home together since the Mizumoto house is located in the same direction as the Sasagawa.

"It was fun wasn't it?" Kyoko asked her brother and Akihiko.

"Un," Akihiko responded with a nod

"It was fun to the extreme!" Ryohei grinned.

Their expression of happiness seemed genuine.

"I'm glad," Kyoko smiled and together they walked home quietly as the sun slowly went down the horizon.

* * *

To Be Continued...

**AN: Once again, Reviews are loved!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC, Mizumoto Akihiko.  
**

**AN: Thank you all to those who reviewed! I really appreciate it! Sorry for the wait. It took me awhile to write the beginning. I wasn't sure how to do it. And after several attempt, this comes out. It's still not the best but it's better than what I had before. Then after that the middle and last part was pretty fun to do. Enjoy reading! **

* * *

The sun ray kissed the morning dew as students hurriedly walk down the street to school, eager for the day. Today was the Parent's Participation day, the day where all students strived to be extremely well mannered and behaved. After all, who wouldn't want to look good in front of other people parents? But the most important things of all are probably they want to show off to the world that their parents are great, someone they are proud of.

The class room of 1-A seemed awfully rowdy as the students chattered excitedly, wishing that their parents would show up—though that was not the case for a certain brunet, Sawada Tsunayoshi.

But Nana wasn't stupid; she knew that her son doesn't want her to see the No-Good side of him. She knew her son doesn't want her to go to Parent Participation Day. In spite that, Nana still decided to go. She wanted to show the world, that regardless, she'll always support her son.

So there she was standing at the back of the classroom, besides other parents. She, along with other parents, was observing the classroom silently, watching the lesson with mild interest—they are more interested in their sons or daughters' performance.

"Sawada, what is the answer to this problem?" The teacher asked Tsuna, who now had on this face of confusion.

Tsuna glanced around nervously and noticed Gokudera, who was making some really weird faces. Tsuna mentally face-palmed, "Hieee, what are you trying to say Gokudera-kun?"

Nana noticed this exchange and chuckled softly. She was glad that Tsuna made such great friends, who would look out for her son.

"Sawada?" The teacher asked again after awhile, when he received no response from Tsuna.

"Hiee, I don't know. I'll just guess," He mentally wailed. As he was about to guess, a slipper suddenly smacked soundly against Tsuna's head. He turned around and saw Reborn, who had disguised as a parent.

"Did something happen?" One of the parents asked.

"I thought I heard a 'twat'." Another replied.

But Tsuna knew better. If he were to answer incorrectly, it would spell his doom. As he turned his head back toward the teacher, he noticed Lambo and Ipin, who now sat on top of the teacher desk.

Ipin wasn't the problem. But Lambo was happily erasing the problems on the board with his hair.

"My, whose kids are they?" Some of the parents muttered, giving disapproved glance at Lambo.

"Haha, sorry, they are mine," Nana smiled lightly and ignored the disapproving glance from neighboring parents. She went up and took Lambo and Ipin into her arm.

Tsuna was wondering why Nana brought them with her Bianchi suddenly showed up claiming that she was the one who brought them because they wanted to come. Upon seeing Bianchi face, Gokudera immediately choked.

"Ack, Nee-san!" Gokudera cried and fainted.

"Oh my, Hayato. Don't worry I'll get you to the nurse." Bianchi declared and cupped Gokudera's face.

Tsuna, who was watching from the side, had a dumbfounded expression. "No, you'll worsen it…" He muttered.

Nana just laughed lightly at the comical sight. And thus the lesson was canceled so that they could get Gokudera to the nurse. How interesting. Nana thought with a smile. Usually things would end here, but Reborn took over the class as a substitute. Well, and the rest was history. His satanic way of teaching caused the whole class to fear him. He once threw a chalk at an insolent student who made fun of him and said student fainted on the spot. When the parent of said student began to protest, she too got hit by the chalk and fainted. Of course, none of these things seemed to faze Nana, and she watched the lesson happily.

Meanwhile, class 2-A, whose classroom located directly above 1-A was wondering what exactly happening downstairs. They wondered if there was an explosion or something because the windows were rattling pretty hard. On second thought let's not go there. Whatever Reborn was doing down there, it's best not to know.

In class 2-A, Akihiko was paying extreme attention to today lesson. It's not that often that his parents have time to come to Parent Participation Day. And when they do, he made sure to be on his best behavior.

Ryohei on the other hand, was sweating profusely. He had totally forgot to study and prepare for today. "Aw man, I'm not going to know the answer." He thought, dejected.

But luckily, he glanced around and didn't see his parents. He sighed in relief, "They must be at Kyoko's classroom." He concluded.

Regardless, Parent Participation Day came and went. With some occasional weird noises from downstairs, there weren't exactly any other things worth mentioning. Technically, that would be a lie. The moment the class ended and when Akihiko's mom met Nana, they were off chatting like machine guns—most of those topics range from anything from the weather to the brand of clothing to... love life? Why on earth would they want to talk about that?

"Oh my, my Aki doesn't even have any female friends," Akihiko's mom laughed lightly.

"Haha, are you sure there weren't any secret crush or anything?" Nana suggested, a smile gracing her face.

Akihiko's Mom gasped, "That is totally possible. Oh my, Nana-chan, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Ohohoho, yes Reiko-chan" Nana laughed.

At this moment, Akihiko was looking at both women with an indescribable expression. But due to his well mannerism, he kept his expression stoic. Tsuna was fidgeting lightly next to Nana. Then suddenly another topic came up, cooking.

"Reiko-chan, your son has such talent for cooking," Nana praised.

"Oh yes, that he is. But unfortunately, I don't exactly always be available to teach him how to cook," Reiko frowned. "Beside I'm not that great of a chef."

Nana smiled lightly, "If you don't mind, I would love to tutor him in cooking,"

Reiko's eyes widened briefly, "Oh that would be a wonderful idea. I always worry sometime what his dad and he would do if I couldn't cook."

"Haha, then it's decided. Akihiko, you should come over more often!" Nana grinned brightly at him.

"If I am not imposing," Akihiko bowed politely.

It was as if Nana had planned this whole thing, planned exactly how the conversation would end. That was such a terrifying thought. After that, they exchanged words of parting and headed home.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by in a blur. Whenever Akihiko have time, which is usually on a Sunday, he would go over to the Sawada household to get his cooking lesson; though strangely whenever he chose to visit, Tsuna was either at a friend house or out doing training with Reborn. Akihiko never knew Nana could be such a strict teacher. Akihiko recalled one of his lessons.

Akihiko was just about to grab some spices when Nana gently slapped Akihiko's hand with a spatula. The hit wasn't that hard, but strangely, it stung quite a bit. "Ara, Aki-kun, that's flour, not salt." Nana chastised.

"That won't do. You need to pay close attention to detail. What if that had been a bomb disguised as a cup? Surely you would have been dead by now or even worst if you gave that to your boss."

She frowned. "You would have unknowingly killed him." That was oddly pretty specific…

Akihiko mentally quirked an eyebrow, thinking, "What does bombs have to do with anything? And boss, why would I give a cup to my boss? Is Nana-san ok?"

Swat! Another hit from the spatula to the head. "Ara, that wasn't very nice. Thinking badly about people,"

Despite that, Nana was truly a great teacher. Only just a few lessons, yet Akihiko learned so much from her.

* * *

It's that time of the year again. The day began with a clear sky. Opening up the window to his room, the scent of full bloomed Sakura greeted Akihiko. It's that time of the year again—the time for flower viewing, Ohanami! Cherry blossoms petals fluttered gently through the air as the morning spring breeze carried them higher and higher. It's truly a beautiful sight to see.

Usually, the whole Mizumoto household would go flower viewing together. So he wasn't sure how to respond when Tsuna invited him. The night before, he had asked his parent if he may go flower viewing with his friends, Tsuna and Ryohei. His parents had look at each other before they smiled and agreed to let Akihiko go. Breaking into a happy smile, Akihiko had immediately gone to prepare some food for their outing. Using the skills that Nana had taught him, he made some Dango and sakuramochi for the occasion. He had even brewed some sakuracha, or sakura tea! He didn't trust Ryohei to remember. So just in case, Akihiko had prepared a little bit extra.

Waiting patiently for Ryohei, Akihiko sat at the door step and stared at the sky, admiring the beauty of nature. He didn't have to wait long when Ryohei came shadowing over him.

"Akihiko!" He grinned excitedly to which Akihiko smiled back, "Ryohei."

Ryohei extended his arm and offered it to help Akihiko up. Grabbing onto Ryohei's hand, Akihiko allowed Ryohei to pull him up. Then he looked around and asked, "Kyoko?" Strange, Kyoko isn't with them?

"Kyoko went with Hana and Haru for their own outing. Something about appreciation day…" Ryohei rubbed his chin as he tried to remember Kyoko's exact word.

"I asked if I could come along, but they refused to the extreme…" Ryohei pouted lightly.

Akihiko just smiled and nodded politely. "Let's go."

Arriving at the park, it was strangely devoid of people. Not even a single soul was to be seen even thought the sakura are in full bloom. As they continued to walk, they found Tsuna and his friends arguing with a delinquent.

"Scram, this whole place is reserved. No one is allowed to be here." The delinquent bellowed.

"Eh, that's so not fair," Yamamoto complained. "It's not like this is private property or something."

"I never said this was opened for discussion. Leave or else." The delinquent threatened.

"Tche, shut up." Gokudera growled and kicked him in the gut. The delinquent fell down from the pain. As he fell, Tsuna noticed the armband at his left bicep. It read, "Disciplinary Club."

"Hieee! He's from the Disciplinary club!" He wailed to the surprised Yamamoto.

Just then, Hibari showed up. "Hm, I was wondering who was being so noisy. It turns out to be you guys." He smirked and continued, "I don't like flower viewing with so many people, so I made this guy chase them off." He walked toward the delinquent, a cruel smirk on his face.

"Hm, seem like you couldn't even do something as simple as this." Hibari eyes narrowed as he looked at the delinquent.

"P-president, f-forgive me." He whimpered.

"Weakling," Hibari started, his teeth barring into a ferocious smirk. "Should just go decompose." He finished as he swung his tonfa against the poor delinquent head, sending him flying.

Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto was shocked that Hibari would do that to his very own people. With the unconscious delinquent out of the way, Hibari slowly advance toward the trio. "Perhaps I should decompose you three too." He smiled in a disturbing way.

They gulped as Hibari walked closer. Ryohei, decided now is a good time to make his presence known, spoke up. "Yo Hibari!" He shouted and caught Hibari's attention. Akihiko nodded his greeting.

"Onii-san, Mizumoto-senpai!" Tsuna shouted, relieve seeping into his voice. They should be safe now.

"Yo, senpai!" Yamamoto laughed.

Hibari merely spare them a disinterested glance and diverted his attention back toward the trio.

Suddenly a voice broke through the clearing, "Ah, what a nice view. Pity there isn't any women." The family voice of the perverted school nurse came through from above the tree. They all looked up and saw Shamal and Reborn.

"Oh, even the kid is here," Hibari greeted. "Nice to see you again,"

Reborn smirked sadistically, "How about it Hibari, Tsuna want to compete using this spot as a price."

"Hieee, Reborn!?" Tsuna shrieked. He never agreed to any of this.

Hibari seemed interested in the proposal. "Hm, a game? How interesting. I've always wanted to kill you guys anyway," He gave a bloodthirsty grin.

"How about you three fight me separately, whoever let their knees touches the ground first loses?" He suggested; the grin never once left his face.

"A game? I extremely want to play!" Ryohei grinned madly.

Akihiko shook his head lightly at his friend's reaction to the word game; a smile softly graced his lips.

"I wish to join," Akihiko said.

"Yea, Tsuna, I want to see the Sakura too," Yamamoto gave his happy-go-looking smile.

"Juudaime, please let me do it!" Gokudera was eager to prove himself to his Juudaime.

"Eh, Seriously?" Tsuna asked nervously, a little bit of surprised lacing his tone. Who in their right mind would want to go against the Hibari? Well maybe Ryohei and Akihiko, but Yamamoto and Gokudera as well? He didn't expect that.

"Don't worry, Tsuna, that's why Shamal is here. Beside, your stronger subordinates are here too." Reborn smirked and glance at both Ryohei and Akihiko. It is only logical that they would be strong since they had been "sparring" with Hibari for who knows how long.

Even though they have a doctor, Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto wasn't that assured since they know the perverted doctor only treat girls. Ryohei and Akihiko, on the other hand, would be a great help.

Then Shamal decided to stupidly go up to Hibari and asked in a drunken voice, "Oh, a feisty one, do you have a sister?"

"Scram," Hibari growled and smack his trusty tonfa against Shamal's head. The perverted doctor fell in an unceremonious heap.

"Hieee, now we don't have a doctor!" Tsuna wailed.

Looking back at Hibari, he was standing there with a bored look on his face after he had "disposed" of Shamal. It looked like he's getting annoyed of waiting. Seeing this, Gokudera volunteered to go first.

Tsuna protested, "Eh, Gokudera-kun!"

"Just watch." Reborn smirked from the branch. He had confident that Gokudera had grown stronger since their last training.

Gokudera locked his gaze onto Hibari as he dashed forward, dynamites in hand.

Hibari grinned condescendingly, "You are too easy to read. Now die." He swung the tonfa at Gokudera, intended to take him out in one hit. But he totally wasn't expecting Gokudera to duck and side stepped his swung. He continued to run toward Hibari, and as he was close enough, he tossed his ignited dynamites into the air. Without stopping after the toss, he ran a good few feet behind Hibari as the dynamites descend and surrounded Hibari.

The dynamites exploded in an artful explosion as Gokudera called out his attack, "Bomb Blitz!"

"Go to hell." He smirked, thinking he had won.

He turned around, expecting Hibari to be downed on his knees. But he was in for a surprised when the smoke cleared and Hibari was still standing. At the moment the explosion began, Hibari has started spinning his tonfas, creating a shield to protect him from the explosion.

"Are we going to continue?" Hibari stated before rushing toward the unprepared Gokudera. Caught completely off guard, Gokudera fell on his knee.

"Time out, Gokudera's knees has touched the ground," Reborn called out but Hibari smiled sadistically and said, "No way,"

He would have swung that Tonfa down onto Gokudera's head had it not for Yamamoto blocking it with a sword.

"Extreme blocking!" Ryohei hollered as he watched the fight excitedly.

"My turn next," Yamamoto smiled. "This should even things out," He grinned, referring to the sword.

Hibari was amused. This herbivore thinks he can defeat him just because he now had a weapon? What a joke. "You think?" He commented and rushed forward Yamamoto.

Yamamoto swung the sword down using brute force rather than techniques to hopefully overwhelmed Hibari. Hibari merely sidesteps that swung and brought his Tonfa across, aiming to strike Yamamoto's shoulder. If the strike had been on the head or on the knee, the person can just either duck or jump over the blow. The shoulder area is hard to dodge as the person can only move back to avoid the strike. With Yamamoto predicament he couldn't exactly step back since he was still in a momentum from his swing. Reacting quickly he put his sword up.

Yamamoto merely blocked the Tonfa and smile at Hibari. Hibari smirked and said, "My weapon still has a secret." He jerked his hand slightly and at the base of the tonfa came a hook. The hook locked into Yamamoto's blade. With his weapon now restricted by the hook, Yamamoto was left defenseless.

"Uh oh…" Yamamoto sweated as a kick send him flying away. He slid onto the ground from the force. It's good to say that his knee has touched the ground. "Damn it, I lost again," He cursed.

"Yamamoto!" Tsuna shouted in concern.

"I'm ok!" Yamamoto replied as he got up and went to stand beside Gokudera.

"Hm, who's next?" Hibari grinned sadistically as he alternated his glance between Ryohei, Akihiko and Tsuna.

"Yosh, I'll go!" Ryohei narrowed his eyes in excitement. He stepped forward Hibari, his bandaged arm lowered into a stance.

"Hm, noisy herbivore, amuse me." Hibari smirked and without warning, both of the fighters rushed forward and met in the middle.

Fist met Tonfa in a loud crash. Neither fighter wanted to let up as they continued to push against each other until with one loud cry, Ryohei pushed Hibari back. He has successfully deflected Hibari's blow.

"Hm, he has improved," Akihiko noted from beside Tsuna. Earlier in the year, Ryohei wouldn't have been able to land a hit much less deflect one.

Hibari eyes' widened in surprised before narrowing down. He stepped back a little to ready his stance and spun his tonfa against Ryohei.

Ryohei bobbed downward to dodge the strike and stepped into Hibari's range.

"Extreme Uppercut!" Ryohei shouted as he delivered an uppercut at Hibari's chin.

With his other tonfa, Hibari blocked the block and kicked Ryohei outside his personal space again. Now that Ryohei is well within his tonfa range again, Hibari quickly jabbed Ryohei's abdomen, causing him to skid back in pain. Without waiting for Ryohei to recover, Hibari struck his other tonfa across Ryohei's head, imagined the surprise when Ryohei did not fall over.

Instead, Ryohei grinned and shouted, "A proud boxer must be able to take hit and remain standing!"

"Extreme Rush!" Ryohei announced his move as he leaped toward Hibari with his amazing footwork and jab his fist relentlessly.

Hibari smirked excitedly, adrenaline pumping through his vein. Yes that's it, a decent fight. He totally loves it. Dodging the strikes easily, he waited for the right time to execute his next move. When Ryohei brought his right arm back and his left arm sprung forth, there was a brief amount of time when both his arms are well within Hibari's range. Bringing both of his tonfa up in a scissoring position, Hibari caught both of Ryohei's arms at that exact moment.

With his attack successfully nullified, Hibari grinned and with his leg kicked Ryohei across the clearing. "You are still an herbivore," Hibari announced. Ryohei is strong, indeed, but he wasn't strong enough to be Hibari's equal, yet.

With a giant leap, Hibari covered the distant between himself and Ryohei and brought both his tonfa down Ryohei's head. With such a force, Ryohei have no choice as his knees buckled and touched the ground. Had Ryohei was equipped with his boxing gloves, maybe the match would have lasted a lot longer?

After awhile, Ryohei recovered from the hit and rubbed his head, "That was one extreme spar."

The underclassmen, except Tsuna, were pretty surprised that their white haired senpai would be this strong. Hibari turned and look at Tsuna and Akihiko, waiting for his next opponent.

"Next is Akihiko," Reborn announced from the tree. This would be a good chance to showcase the upperclassmen's ability. It would serve as a way to push Yamamoto and Gokudera to become stronger.

Akihiko nodded lightly and took out a fan. It's a new model that he just crafted recently. Maybe now he'll get a chance to try it out?

"Saa, shall we dance, Hibari?" Akihiko stated in an emotionless tone.

"EH, Mizumoto-senpai!?" Shouted a bewildered Tsuna.

"Haha, you are funny, Mizumoto-senpai," Yamamoto laughed.

Grinning madly, Hibari propelled himself in the direction of Akihiko, who had on a really calm expression. When Hibari was well within range, Akihiko jumped and spun over Hibari. As soon as he landed, he spun around and struck Hibari with the blunt end of the fan. But Hibari already anticipated this and twisted his body around to block Akihiko's fan.

Withdrawing his fan, Akihiko lashed forward and closed his fan. Crouching low, he sprung upward, spinning like a top and delivered a diagonal strike against Hibari, who blocked with his tonfa. Waiting for an opening, Hibari leaped at Akihiko the moment he was about to land. Tonfa high above his head, he brought it down to Akihiko, who merely twisted his body to dodge the airborne strike. As soon as his feet touch the ground, he vault backward to gain himself some distant. It would be troublesome if Hibari caught his fan in his hook.

Following Akihiko, Hibari struck a blow at Akihiko feet while at the same time spun the other tonfa. The moment Akihiko jumped to avoid the hit, the spinning tonfa came strikingly quick at Akihiko's face. Reacting on instinct, Akihiko brought his other hand up and grabbed the tonfa.

Using his strength, he used the tonfa as a level to propel himself up even higher. Now directly over Hibari's head, Akihiko stabbed downward with his fan, now closed. Hibari brought his other tonfa up into a cross block position.

Two forces collided and Akihiko pushed against the tonfas so he could jump away. Without waiting for a break, Hibari closed up the gap and attack relentlessly. Akihiko dodged as if he was dancing. How dangerous, a skylark hunting a butterfly. How much longer can the butterfly evade the skylark's strike?

Akihiko brought his fan up to block Hibari's tonfa. And with his other freehand, grabbed the other tonfa, aiming to twist Hibari's tonfa against its user. Sensing the attack, Hibari quickly executed a kick to knock Akihiko away. But Akihiko brought up his leg to block it. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough against Hibari's strength. Akihiko's defense was quickly destroyed as Hibari escaped his tonfas from Akihiko's grip.

Hibari brought it down to Akihiko, expecting to be blocked. True enough, Akihiko let his fan up. Smirking, Hibari quickly activate his hook and locked Akihiko's fan in place.

"You lost," He smirked and brought his other tonfa down to Akihiko's neck. Then something unexpected happened. Akihiko bend his upper body back and dodged the strike. "It's time to use the new mechanic that this model of fan provided." He thought as he free his fan from the tonfa.

As a last ditch effort, he extended his hand threw his fan at Hibari as he stepped back. The fan missed when Hibari merely cocked his head to the side. The fan went past Hibari's head. But strangely Akihiko smirked. Retracting his extended hand, the flying fan suddenly stopped in its track and flew back. The fan smacked against Hibari's shoulder before going back to Akihiko's hand.

"What? How?" Tsuna asked, totally did not expect that to happen.

Hibari looked at the fan and raised his eyebrows. "The shape of the fan is different— a boomerang." He stated then his expressionless face broke into a bloodthirsty smirk. "Interesting."

"Enough game." He growled.

Like a ferocious beast, he sunk his tonfa hard down onto Akihiko's shoulder. Akihiko raised his fan to block. But Hibari tonfa crashed onto the fan and shattered it into pieces. The price for having a boomerang-like fan is that it's not very durable. Nevertheless, the fan cushioned Hibari's strength a little bit and lessened the power behind that blow. Otherwise, He would have fractured Akihiko's shoulder. The blow brought Akihiko down to his knee. The skylark has bitten his prey. A butterfly without wings is as good as dead. Without his fan, Akihiko has no other way to defend against Hibari. Hibari was the victorious one, as expected.

Yamamoto and Gokudera looked at Hibari, Ryohei and Akihiko and reflected on themselves. They need to be stronger if they wished to protect Tsuna, as strong as their upperclassmen, if not stronger. They have a lot of work ahead of them.

"Alright, it's your turn Tsuna." Reborn announced and shot Tsuna with a dying will bullet. Tsuna burst into flame as he shouted, "Defeat Hibari with my Dying Will!"

As Tsuna leaped into battle without a weapon, Reborn quickly motion his pet chameleon to transform into a duster. Yes, it is very effective against tonfa. Of course it's effective, it's a magical duster!

Akihiko, Ryohei, Yamamoto and Gokudera watched in awe as Tsuna blocked every blows that Hibari delivered. And every blow that Tsuna delivered, Hibari would also block them flawlessly. It was a blur of movements. They were evenly matched.

Akihiko gently massage his shoulder to lessen the pain as he watched the fight. Ryohei noticed this and put his hand on Akihiko's shoulder. As a kid, Ryohei had always healed rather quickly. For some reason, whenever he absolutely wishes to be healed, the injuries that he touched would heal faster too. He was hoping it would be the same when he touched Akihiko's injuries.

Akihiko flinched lightly at the touch. But he trusted Ryohei to not do anything stupid. He dropped his hand and allowed Ryohei to gently pat the injury. Like a miracle worker, the pain eased away slowly, to be replaced by the comfortable warmth of Ryohei's hand. It felt like the refreshing warmth of the sun.

Directing their attention back at Hibari, the fight between Tsuna and Hibari had dragged on for quite awhile—a stalemate.

Hibari furrowed his eyebrows. "You are confusing. I can't read you at all. Sometime you are weak, but sometime you are strong."

He exchanged some more blows with Tsuna. Then suddenly, he decided, "Too much trouble, I'll just kill you,"

And at that very moment, the effect of the Dying Will Bullet wore off, leaving a very frightened Tsuna behind.

"Hieee!" He shrieked and closed his eyes, expecting the incoming pain. But it never came.

Tsuna slowly opened his eyes as he looked at Hibari, who now had fallen on his knees for unknown reason. Akihiko and Ryohei were surprised. "Wow, Tsuna, you are strong to the extreme!" Ryohei exclaimed. Akihiko nodded in agreement. His respect for Tsuna has just skyrocketed.

Tsuna asked himself, "Eh, did I do that?"

Reborn just kicked his student on the head, "Of course not, he did it." He pointed at Shamal. But strangely, the other didn't hear that part. They all thought it was Tsuna who did it.

Shamal stood up and rub his chin as he said, "Hm, I've given him the Sakura Disorientation Syndrome, where he cannot stand up near Sakura." He grinned.

"It's another weird disease," Tsuna thought as he sweatdropped.

"Tche, rules are rules, I'll leave this place." Hibari stated and willed his body to move as he left the park.

Akihiko looked up and met Ryohei's gaze, "Will he be ok?" went the unasked question.

"He'll be ok to the extreme," Ryohei reassured. "He's Hibari."

Just then Haru, Kyoko, Nana, Hana, Bianchi along with Lambo and Ipin made their way into the park.

"Hi everyone!" They greeted.

"Wow, VIP seat," Haru and Kyoko laughed.

"Hm, pretty good. Good job Sawada. You aren't a monkey after all." Hana commented nonchalantly, which earned her a glare from Gokudera. He would have shouted had it not for Bianchi, who suddenly appeared in front of him.

His face paled as he choked on his saliva.

"Kyoko!" Ryohei shouted and waved. "I thought you were going somewhere about appreciation day."

"Ah…well about that… We got cake! But I swear I only eat it once a month!" Kyoko and Haru quickly said. Ryohei merely laughed.

"I can't believe you guys got such wonderful spot," Nana praised with a smile.

So they all got down and set up their picnic, flower viewing party. They had fun enjoying the beauty of nature as foods were shared among the people. Akihiko would have performed a few dances too had it not for Hibari destroying his fan and giving him an injury. Beneath the sky, the group relaxed, feeling comfortable with the spring breeze.

* * *

Regardless, spring came and was gone in a blink of an eyes. It was now the beginning of summer. Class has ended and summer break began.

Akihiko was getting pretty excited for the Summer Festival that Namimori held annually at the local shrine. Dressing in his white striped yukata, hand holding onto an uchiwa, he happily strolled down the street. (Uchiwa are festival paper fan, not the folding fan)

Remembering that Ryohei and Kyoko had invited him, he walked over to their house and rang the doorbell. After awhile, he heard the rumbling footstep of a very familiar white haired boy. The door swung open and Ryohei greeted Akihiko energetically.

"Akihiko!" He laughed and Kyoko stepped out from behind him. Both of them had on this smile that could brighten up the whole world.

"Hello, Ryohei, Kyoko" Akihiko greeted, taking note of Ryohei and Kyoko outfit. Ryohei wore a dark blue yukata with wave pattern and Kyoko had on a light blue goldfish-patterned yukata.

"Let's go to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted with a laugh.

"Onii-san!" Kyoko frowned when Ryohei accidentally yelled too close to her ears. She bought her hands up and massaged her ears.

"Haha, sorry Kyoko!" He grinned, too excited about the festival to care.

Akihiko just chuckled softly at the scene and they walked down the street to the festival. After a while, deeming that their speed was too slow to be extreme, Ryohei grabbed both their hands and ran down the street, dragging Kyoko and Akihiko with him.

"Onii-san!" Kyoko wailed.

"Extreme running!" He laughed the whole way.

Due to his athleticism, Akihiko was able to keep up with Ryohei. As they were running, Akihiko noticed that Kyoko was keeping up with them perfectly. He looked over at her questionably. It was as if Kyoko noticed that he was looking. Because as he was about to get a better look, Kyoko started panting, which cause Akihiko to think that he must have imagined the whole things. He shrugged it off and allowed Ryohei to drag him down the road to the local shrine.

Upon arriving at the step to the local shrine, the three of them could literally smell the festivities in the air. Those unique salty scents of fried squid, of chocolate banana, of candy apple were carried down by the evening wind. The three of them took a deep breath. Ah, the smell of summer festival.

They decided to go attend a one of the goldfish booth, which Ryohei claimed it's an extremely difficult game. Smiling lightly, Kyoko and Akihiko agreed that they would go to the booth—only after they have met up with Hana Kurosawa first.

"Onii-san, we were supposed to meet up with Hana first!" She pouted lightly.

"Ah, I extremely forgot." Ryohei exclaimed loudly.

They found Hana waiting for them beneath the torii (those red shrine gates that you would see before entering shrine ground).

"Hana-chan!" Kyoko waved happily.

"Good evening, Kyoko, Sasagawa-senpai, Mizumoto-senpai." She greeted with a bored expression.

"Evening!" Ryohei and Akihiko greeted. More like Ryohei shouted and Akihiko nodded.

"We can go extreme goldfish scooping now!" Ryohei exclaimed, impatiently as he was about to drag them all again.

"Ryohei, the booth is not going anywhere, anytime soon." Akihiko said softly and held Ryohei back. He didn't want to be dragged around anymore. Running in Yukata is not exactly the most elegant sight, not to mention, the movement are awkward with the geta.

"Onii-san, we are going to go look around. Let's meet up later for the firework viewing."Kyoto smiled and walked away with Hana.

"Be careful to the extreme!" Ryohei hollered to the duo.

"We will, onii-san!" Kyoko waved back with a smile.

"Ok, let's go extreme goldfish scooping!" Ryohei exclaimed and together they walked down rows and rows of booth to hunt for the goldfish scooping booth.

"I'm going to get it for sure this year!" Ryohei said excitedly to Akihiko, who nodded lightly with a smile on his face.

* * *

_Recalling back to the first summer festival that the two spend together, it all started at the goldfish booth. The younger Ryohei was standing off to the side of the goldfish scooping booth, observing other children, when Akihiko came up behind him._

_"Good evening, Sasagawa-san." Akihiko greeted._

_"Mizumoto!" Ryohei's face glowed with happiness._

_"Goldfish scooping?" Akihiko directed his glance at the booth, where many children were failing horribly at it._

_"It's such an extreme sport!" Ryohei exclaimed happily. Then he glanced at Akihiko and as if he has an epiphany of some sort. He grinned, "Let's play!"_

_Without waiting for an answer from Akihiko, Ryohei had already dragged them over to the booth._

_"Ojii-san, we extremely want to play!" he shouted at the poor man, who must have had his eardrum damaged from the extreme shouting._

_Thus began their attempt at goldfish scooping. Holding onto the paper net excitedly, Ryohei began to charge blindly into the water—with his hand of course. The hand came into contact with the water in a loud splash!_

_"Extreme!" He shouted in glee. "Got you!" and lifted the net up with all his strength. His eyes sparkled at the fish. But unfortunately, due to his animalistic strength, the paper had long been destroyed. The fish fell through the hole easily and back into the water. Everyone around him sweatdropped at the sight._

_"I'll extremely try again." He said, as if nothing has happened. So he tried again and again. And every time he tried it, he ended up breaking the net. On his seventh tried, he had already used up his allowance. Glancing over at Akihiko, his eyes almost popped out of his time it took for Ryohei to zoom through seven tries, Akihiko still hadn't move from his spot._

_Akihiko was patient as he observed the fish, fish net held onto his hand. He want to make sure he get the right one, the little black chubby goldfish that look different from others fish._

_The trick to this game is that, you shouldn't scoop blindly without waiting for the right timing. The scoop must be quick yet light so that it won't casue the fish to swam away nor allow the scoop to stay too long in the water._

_Ryohei watched in awe as Akihiko lashed his hand out and quickly scooped up the targeted fish. He would have gone for another try, but his net was already broken due to the extra weight cause by the black goldfish._

_Akihiko turned to look at Ryohei and offered a small smile. He walked over to Ryohei and held the bag of goldfish in front of Ryohei's face._

_"For you," He smiled._

_Ryohei broke out into a happy grin. He nodded, "Thanks, Akihiko!"_

_Akihiko looked surprise at the usage of first name and just quirked an eyebrow. After a while, he smiled back. "You are welcome, Ryohei."_

_Ryohei's eyes seemed to glow with happiness at Akihiko's respond._

_"Next year, I'll win for sure!" Ryohei laughed, to which Akihiko nodded with a smile._

* * *

To this year, Ryohei had yet to win even one single goldfish.

As for that chubby black goldfish? It died a long time ago. Perhaps that has to do with the unusual chubbiness it shown. The younger Ryohei suspected that it might be overweight, which is exactly what he told the younger Akihiko. Akihiko just looked at him with an expressionless face. Back then, Ryohei wasn't that good at reading Akihiko's unspoken words. But if the current he was to look at that face, he would have realized that Akihiko meant to say, "It's because of your extreme running..." which is true to a sense. Ryohei had rushed home, too excited by the fish that he had unknowingly shook the bag in an extreme way. Of course, any fish would die from that traumatizing experience.

Ever since then, it's become tradition for the two of them to always visit the goldfish booth sometime during the Summer Festival. After all, it held some sort of significant value that both of them cherished.

Oh look they are still looking for the goldfish booth. Could something have happened to the booth's owner? That was a silly question. Of course something happened—Hibari happened that's what. Every year, Hibari and his disciplinary members would go around collecting fee for the right to use the place to set up booth. The owner of the goldfish booth must have forgotten about that fact, and thus had his booth destroyed, or at least about to.

"Hm, if you don't pay up, I'll destroy your booth." Hibari smirked sadistically.

"I-I'm so sorry, but I don't have 50000 yen yet!" The booth owner cried.

"Oh? Too bad," He raised his hand, with his tonfa ready. He swung it at the booth but suddenly, someone moved in front of Hibari and grabbed hold of the Tonfa. If it had been one person, Hibari would have totally broken through that defense. As it turned out, there was another hand that was gripping at Hibari's arm.

"Move, Herbivores," Hibari glared at the newcomers, who turned out to be Akihiko and Ryohei.

"Oi, Hibari, that wasn't cool to the extreme!" Ryohei commented from behind Hibari, though it came out more like a shout.

"He didn't pay," Hibari growled, as if that explained everything—actually, in a sense it did—and pushed onto the tonfa. Ryohei and Akihiko's grips tightened.

Akihiko looked into Hibari's eyes and shared a mental conversation. After all, it was easier for two quite people to communicate because they were so use to the silent that it becomes a second language to them.

"Is that really necessary?" Akihiko quirked his eyebrows.

"He broke the rule," Hibari's eyes narrowed.

"You won't get any money if you don't let him gain some first." Akihiko's frowned.

"Yea, he's right," Ryohei voiced his agreement after he deciphered the silent conversation.

The bystander just looked at him as if he had grown another head. For them, the bystanders hadn't heard a single thing from the two teenagers. Yet this white haired boy responded as if they had been speaking.

Growling with displeasure, Hibari glared, no longer pushing against them. "Move your hands." A very dissatisfied look made itself across Hibari's face.

Akihiko smile and Ryohei laughed, but nevertheless moved their hand. They were glad that Hibari saw some sense in their reasoning. Then suddenly, Hibari spun around and smack both of them on the head with his Tonfa.

"If you stop me again, I'll bite you to dead." Hibari warned and walked off with his club members behind him.

The booth owner was grateful and offered to let them play the first try for free. Ryohei laughed. "Thank you to the extreme!" and grabbed the fish net.

Akihiko just smiled politely and said, "He'll be back by the end of the day to collect the 50000 yen." The owner nodded. At least he now has the chance to make some money rather than letting his booth destroyed right away.

So Ryohei and Akihiko stayed there for awhile and once again, Ryohei failed. While waiting for Ryohei, Akihiko noticed a booth next to them that was selling mask. They were pretty well made, Akihiko mused and decided to get one—a mask with the design of a fox.

He put it over his head and positioned it to the right side so that half of the mask was on his hair. Glancing over at Ryohei, he sweatdropped at the sight. Ryohei is still trying and unfortunately, there wasn't any luck. Akihiko sighed and dragged Ryohei away; much less he spent his allowance again. That would mean no money for junk food.

"Let's go Ryohei," Akihiko said as he dragged Ryohei away like a parent dragging a little kid.

"No, stupid Akihiko, I must get that fish to the extreme!" He struggled against Akihiko's grip.

Feeling annoyed, Akihiko put an arm around Ryohei's neck and put his other hand, forming into a fist, on top of Ryohei's head. Then he started rubbing vigorously. Yes, Akihiko is giving Ryohei a _very loving_ noogie—sarcasm intended.

"Stupid?" Akihiko smiled brightly, which is unusual for him. Somehow, that bright smile looked eerily creepy on his face.

"Ow, Ow, Yow!" Ryohei yelped as Akihiko used more force. "Sorry to the extreme!"

After hearing the magic word, Akihiko let go of Ryohei and revert back to his emotionless face. It seemed like Akihiko only showed this side of him to Ryohei. To other people, he looked very out of character.

"You are an extremely scary bully—the extreme of the extremes..." Ryohei muttered quietly but tensed when Akihiko suddenly stopped walking. Ryohei thought that he must have heard his comment and sweat nervously.

"Ah, you weren't meant to hear that..." He quickly apologized.

Akihiko merely quirked an eyebrow, as if asking, "Hear what?" and turned back to the object that had made him stop.

"N-nothing!" Ryohei said nervously, letting out a sigh of relief.

Ignoring his best friend nonsensical comment, Akihiko stared at the chocolate banana booth, where Tsuna was helping out. Upon noticing the familiar face, Ryohei quickly went to greet them.

"Yo, Sawada!" Ryohei shouted.

"Good evening," Akihiko nodded as greeting.

When he heard his name, Tsuna looked up and saw the approaching duo.

"Ah onii-san, Mizumoto-senpai," Tsuna smiled brightly. "Would you like buy a chocolate banana? I only have two left."

Akihiko was debating whether or not he should buy it since chocolate and banana wasn't exactly his favorite food. But it is to support Tsuna. "Hmm..." Akihiko narrowed his eyes in contemplation. Ryohei, on the other hand, immediately went and got one. He munched happily on it as he looked at Akihiko expectantly.

"It's a good dessert, you should get it," He grinned.

Akihiko's wall of reasoning completely went down the drain. When two of his friends were so insistent, who was he to say no?

"Just this one time," Akihiko told himself.

"Thank you, Mizumoto-senpai!" Tsuna happily said and handed Akihiko his last Chocolate Banana. He put the money away happily and said, "Ha, finally finished."

"Why were you selling chocolate banana?" Ryohei decided to voice the question that both he and Akihiko had.

"Ah, we were raising money," Tsuna sighed, as if thinking of something unpleasant, which probably is.

Akihiko's eyes narrowed and Ryohei tensed as he noticed Akihiko's expression. "This sound suspicious." He thought. To his knowledge, Tsuna wasn't in any club, yet he was raising money. For what? A debt from the Yakuza or someone was forcing him to work without his consent? Life threatening?

Tsuna sighed as he continued sheepishly, "I sort of destroyed a wall at the Auditorium. So I had to pay for that."

Akihiko's face smoothened up as he heard Tsuna's explanation. "So you weren't forced to work." He asked just to make sure.

Tsuna looked surprised and laughed nervously, "Ah, eh? Oh no, nothing of that sort." Then he added quietly to himself, "being force by Reborn perhaps..." but no one heard him.

Suddenly, a person dashed by and took the money box in Tsuna's hand. "The nerve of him," Akihiko's eyebrows twitched in an unhealthy way.

"Not cool to the extreme!" Ryohei shouted and dashed after the thief, to which Akihiko and Tsuna quickly followed.

"Oi, get back here, you thief!"Ryohei bellowed.

All three of them followed the pickpocket up the stair to a secluded area. Ryohei stopped when he noticed the people that were waiting for them. It turned out that Ryohei and Tsuna know them.

Apparently, over the summer, Ryohei had worked as an assistant lifeguard to these people. Akihiko did not go to the beach with the so he didn't know. Something must have happened along the way and Tsuna and Ryohei defeated these people fair and square. They must have held a grudge and decided to hurt them back. Akihiko growled in annoyance. He hated these people the most, people who fight underhandedly.

And he's going to pull a quote from Hibari on this one, "These people must be disciplined." He pulled out his fan discreetly as he noticed that they were surrounded by these high school students. Ryohei too was getting quite annoyed with these bullies.

Then suddenly, a very familiar voice broke through. "I'm so happy that I'm trembling."

Crash! A member of the gang fell as his head bleed profusely.

"I thought I found a delicious crowd. But it turned out to be a great catch with a group of robber we were after." He brandished his tonfa.

Tsuna looked really happy. "Did he come to save me?" he thought.

Hibari just smiled sadistically and said, "You've saved me the trouble of having to collect money from several people. Instead I'll just collect the money you stole."

"You brats! Attack them at once!" The leader ordered and immediately, his underling rushed toward the group.

"It's just four junior high kids! No need to go easy on them!" He sneered.

Bang! A shot rang through the clearing as Tsuna body burst into flames and entered Dying Will mode.

Together with Hibari, Tsuna dispatch multiples opponent with his vicious strikes.

A sudden explosion and slashing sound brought their attention to the newcomers, Yamamoto and Gokudera.

Yamamoto grinned, feeling excited that he would be fighting alongside his senpai and Tsuna. With Gokudera covering larger mob of opponents, Yamamoto zoomed through the rest and struck them all with the blunt end of his sword.

One of the opponents was about to smashed a nailed bat at Gokudera's head when Yamamoto block it with his sword. "That wasn't very nice. " He gave a strained smile. Another person would have struck Yamamoto down had it not for Hibari.

Hibari quickly smack said opponent down to free Yamamoto up. He glanced at Yamamoto.

"Tch. Triple Bombs!" Gokudera shouted and launched a multiple set of bombs at several mobs. A loud explosion shook the field as multiple enemies fell. Looking over at Tsuna, he was kicking and slapping and smacking people like no one business. He would be fine on his own. A sudden sneak attack aimed at Tsuna's back. What's with these people and back attack! Akihiko growled as he blocked the blow meant for Tsuna.

"Ryohei," Akihiko narrowed his eyes. These people are really pissing him off.

Ryohei nodded as he flung Akihiko toward a group of people with his strength gain from boxing. Akihiko soared through the air as he brandished his trusty steel fan. With the momentum, he spun and struck all that was in his path. Throwing his fans around him, it spun and struck everyone within his radius and ended up back into his hand. His latest creation, the improved version of the boomerang-like fan he made a couple months back.

Ryohei grinned madly and turned around delivering many quick punches at many incomers, knocking them out cold. He sneaked a glance at Akihiko and shouted, "Aki!" And without waiting for a respond, He delivered several uppercut to several underling surrounded him. With the force that Ryohei used, they were propelled up into the air.

To make sure they don't get back up and hinder them, Akihiko had jumped when Ryohei called him and into the midst of these flying bodies and spun, smacking his strikes against all of them.

Combination attack.

Reborn grinned from where he sat. This would be first time that they are fighting as a group.

The fight lasted for quite a while until the gang members decided that these junior high kids are way out of their leagues. They ran away with their tails behind their legs. The fight stopped and Hibari glanced at Tsuna, who held onto the money that he earned protectively.

Ryohei and Akihiko moved in front of Tsuna to block Hibari. Their eyes locked and shared a silent conversation. Even though it wasn't spoken, but everyone in that area all understood what the conversation was about.

Hibari scoffed and rolled his eyes. He then grabbed all the money that the robbers collected and left.

"Phew, that was tiring," Yamamoto laughed and Akihiko nodded in agreement.

Tsuna sighed, dejected, "We were able to save the money, but the firework is about to start soon."

They all sighed. It seemed like they'll missed the firework viewing this year. Then suddenly, Kyoko, Hana and Haru came over.

"Hey!" They greeted.

Tsuna was overjoyed when he saw Kyoko. "I called them over," Reborn said.

Tsuna looked at Reborn with a grateful expression. "Reborn..."

"Don't get me wrong. This is the best firework viewing spot after all." He smirked when Tsuna smile fell.

They all positioned themselves comfortably on the grass and enjoyed the view.

"Great Firework to the extreme!" Ryohei commented as he looked over at Akihiko, who was rubbing his arm, causing the sleeve to slide up and revealed an ugly scar on his left arm.

Ryohei suddenly grew awfully quiet as he stared at the scar, memory of that day flooded back into his head. Subconsciously, he reached up his hand and touched the scar on his right temple. Akihiko noticed and smiled genuinely.

"I chose it." He reassured. "We are friend, Ryo" He whispered and looked at the firework.

Ryo is a nickname that Akihiko only used when he was extremely sincere about something.

Ryohei flashed him a soft grin, "Thank you," He softly murmured.

Tsuna had unexpectedly heard that exchange of conversation since he was the closest to them. He fidgeted in his seat, feeling uncomfortable for invading into something so personal. But then Ryohei and Akihiko put his hand on Tsuna shoulder and squeezed gently. Then they let go and went back to looked at the sky.

This was their message of reassurance. It was as if they were saying, "Don't worry about it."

In some way, both Akihiko and Ryohei had already accepted Tsuna into their life, just as Tsuna has welcome them into his life. The Sun and Moon has found their sky at last.

* * *

To Be continued...

**AN: The Stage is all set! Sakura Disorientation Syndrome is now in effect. The next chapter Fuuta will make his appearance and the transition into the Kokuyo Arc begin!  
**

**Leave a review~. I'll be very happy! XD**


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